they have two shifts At first that in many Penitents there is but Attrition of heart which Attrition they define to be Grief proceeding from Fear without Love and to these they say Absolution doth give that Contrition whereby men are really purged from Sinne. Secondly that even where Contrition or Inward Repentance doth cleanse without Absolution the reason why it commeth so to passe is Because such Contrites intend and desire Absolution though they have it not Which two things granted The one that Absolution given maketh them contrite that are not the other even in them which are contrite the cause why God remitteth Sinne is the purpose or desire they have to receive Absolution we are not to stand against a sequel so clear and manifest as this that alwayes remission of Sinne proceedeth from Absolution either had or desired But should a reasonable man give credit to their bare Conceit and because their Positions have driven them to imagine Absolving of unsufficiently-disposed Penitents to be a real creating of further vertue in them must all other men think it due Let them cancel hence forward and blot out of all their Books those old Cautions touching Necessity of Wisdome lest Priests should inconsiderately absolve any man in whom there were not apparent tokens of true Repentance which to do was in Saint Cyprians Judgement Pestilent Deceit and Flattery not only not available but hurtful to them that had transgrest a frivolous frustrate and false peace such as caused the unrighteous to trust to a lye and destroyed them unto whom it promised safety What needeth Observation whether Penitents have Worthiness and bring Contrition if the words of Absolution do infuse Contrition Have they born us all this while in hand that Contrition is a part of the matter of their Sacrament a Condition or Preparation of the Minde towards Grace to be received by Absolution in the form of their Sacrament And must we now believe That the Form doth give the Matter That Absolution bestoweth Contrition and that the words do make presently of Saul David of Iudas Peter For what was the Penitency of Saul and Iudas but plain Attrition horrour of Sinne through fear of punishment without any long sense or taste of God's Mercy Their other Fiction imputing remission of Sinne to desire of Absolution from the Priest even in them which are truly contrite is an evasion somewhat more witty but no whit more possible for them to prove Belief of the World and Judgement to come Faith in the Promises and Sufferings of Christ for Mankinde Fear of his Majestie Love of his Mercy Grief for Sin Hope for Pardon Suit for Grace These we know to be the Elements of true Contrition suppose that besides all this God did also command that every Penitent should seek his Absolution at the Priests hands where so many Causes are concurring unto one effect have they any reason to impute the whole effect unto one any reason in the choyse of that one to pass by Faith Fear Love Humility Hope Prayer whatsoever else and to enthronize above them all A desire of Absolution from the Priest as if in the whole work of Man's Repentance God did regard and accept nothing but for and in consideration of this Why do the Tridentine Council impute it to Charity That Contrites are reconciled in Gods sight before they receive the Sacrament of Penance if desired Absolution be the true Cause But let this passe how it will seeing the Question is not What vertue God may accept in penitent Sinners but what Grace Absolution actually given doth really bestow upon them If it were as they would have it That God regarding the Humiliation of a Contrite Spirit because there is joyned therewith a lowly desire of the Sacrament of Priestly Absolution pardoneth immediately and forgiveth all Offences Doth this any thing help to prove that Absolution received afterward from the Priest can more than declare him already pardoned which did desire it To desire Absolution presupposing it commanded is Obedience and Obedience in that Case is a Branch of the vertue of Repentance which Vertue being thereby made effectual to the taking away of Sinnes without the Sacrament of Repentance Is it not an Argument that the Sacrament of Absolution hath here no efficacy but the virtue of Contrition worketh all For how should any Effect ensue from Causes which actually are not The Sacrament must be applyed wheresoever any Grace doth proceed from it So that where it is but desired only whatsoever may follow upon Gods acceptation of this desire the Sacrament afterwards received can be no cause thereof Therefore the further we wade the better we see it still appears That the Priest doth never in Absolution no not so much as by way of Service and Ministry really either forgive them take away the uncleanness or remove the punishment of Sinne but if the Party penitent come contrite he hath by their own grant Absolution before Absolution if not contrite although the Priest should seem a thousand times to Absolve him all were in vain For which cause the Antients and better sort of their School Divines Abulensis Alexander Hales and Bonaventurt ascribe the real abolition of Sinne and eternal punishment to the mere pardon of Almighty God without dependency upon the Priests Absolution as a cause to effect the same His Absolution hath in their Doctrine certain other effects specified but this denyed Wherefore having hitherto spoken of the vertue of Repentance required of the Discipline of Repentance which Christ did establish and of the Sacrament of Repentance invented sithence against the pretended force of Humane Absolution in Sacramental Penitency Let it suffice thus far to have shewed how God alone doth truly give the vertue of Repentance alone procure and private Ministerial Absolution but declare remission of Sinnes Now the last and sometimes hardest to be satisfied by Repentance are our Mindes and our Mindes we have then satisfied when the Conscience is of guilty become clear For as long as we are in our selves privy to our own most hainous Crimes but without sense of God's Mercy and Grace towards us unlesse the Heart be either brutish for want of Knowledge or altogether hardned by wilful Atheisme the remorse of Sinne is in it as the deadly sting of a Serpent Which point since very Infidels and Heathens have observed in the nature of Sinne for the disease they felt though they knew no remedy to help it we are not rashly to despise those Sentences which are the testimonies of their experience touching this point They knew that the eye of a Man 's own Conscience is more to be feared by evil doers than the presence of a thousand Witnesses in as much as the mouths of other Accusers are many wayes stopt the ears of the accused not alwayes subject to glowing with contumely and exprobation whereas a guilty Minde being forced to be still both a Martyr and a
this point Satan took advantage urging the more securely a false cause because the true was unto Adam unknown Why the Jews were forbidden to Plough their Ground with an Ox and an Ass why to cloath themselves with mingled attire of Wooll and Linnen it was both unto them and to us it remaineth obscure Such Laws perhaps cannot be abrogated saving onely by whom they were made because the intent of them being known unto none but the Author he alone can judge how long it is requisite they should endure But if the reason why things were instituted may be known and being known do appear manifestly to be of perpetual necessity then are those things also perpetual unless they cease to be effectual unto that purpose for which they were at the first instituted Because when a thing doth cease to be available unto the end which gave it being the continuance of it must then of necessity appear superfluous And of this we cannot be ignorant how sometimes that hath done great good which afterwards when time hath changed the ancient course of things doth grow to be either very hurtful or not so greatly profitable and necessary If therefore the end for which a Law provideth be perpetually necessary and the way whereby it provideth perpetually also most apt no doubt but that every such Law ought for ever to remain unchangeable Whether God be the Author of Laws by authorising that power of men whereby they are made or by delivering them made immediately from himself by word onely or in writing also or howsoever notwithstanding the Authority of their Maker the mutability of that end for which they are made maketh them also changeable The Law of Ceremonies came from God Moses had commandment to commit it unto the Sacred Records of Scripture where it continueth even unto this very day and hour in force still as the Jew surmiseth because God himself was Author of it and for us to abolish what he hath established were presumption most intolerable But that which they in the blindness of their obdurate hearts are not able to discern sith the end for which that Law was ordained is now fulfilled past and gone how should it but cease any longer to be which hath no longer any cause of being in force as before That which necessity of some special time doth cause to be enjoyned bindeth no longer then during that time but doth afterward become free Which thing is also plain even by that Law which the Apostles assembled at the Council of Ierusalem did from thence deliver unto the Church of Christ the Preface whereof to authorise it was To the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good Which style they did not use as matching themselves in Power with the Holy Ghost but as testifying the Holy Ghost to be the Author and themselves but onely Utterers of that Decree This Law therefore to haue proceeded from God as the Author thereof no faithful man will deny It was of God not onely because God gave them the power whereby they might make Laws but for that it proceeded even from the holy Motion and Suggestion of that secret Divine Spirit whose sentence they did but onely pronounce Notwithstanding as the Law of Ceremonies delivered unto the Jews so this very Law which the Gentiles received from the Mouth of the Holy Ghost is in like respect abrogated by decease of the end for which it was given But such as do not stick at this point such as grant that what hath been instituted upon any special cause needeth not to be observed that cause ceasing do notwithstanding herein fail they judge the Laws of God onely by the Author and main end for which they were made so that for us to change that which he hath established they hold it execrable pride and presumption if so be the end and purpose for which God by that mean provideth be permanent And upon this they ground those ample Disputes concerning Orders and Offices which being by him appointed for the Government of his Church if it be necessary always that the Church of Christ be governed then doth the end for which God provided remain still and therefore in those means which he by Law did establish as being fittest unto that end for us to alter any thing is to lift up our selves against God and as it were to countermand him Wherein they mark not that Laws are Instruments to rule by and that Instruments are not onely to be framed according unto the general end for which they are provided but even according unto that very particular which riseth out of the matter whereon they have to work The end wherefore Laws were made may be permanent and those Laws nevertheless require some alteration if there be any unfitness in the means which they prescribe as tending unto that end and purpose As for example a Law that to bridle theft doth punish Theeves with a quadruple restitution hath an end which will continue as long as the World it self continueth Theft will be always and will always need to be bridled But that the mean which this Law provideth for that end namely the punishment of quadruple restitution that this will be always sufficient to bridle and restrain that kinde of enormity no man can warrant Insufficiency of Laws doth sometimes come by want of judgment in the Makers Which cause cannot fall into any Law termed properly and immediately Divine as it may and doth into Humane Laws often But that which hath been once most sufficient may wax otherwise by alteration of time and place that punishment which hath been sometimes forcible to bridle sin may grow afterwards too week and feeble In a word we plainly perceive by the difference of those three Laws which the Jews received at the hands of God the Moral Ceremonial and Judicial that if the end for which and the matter according whereunto God maketh his Laws continue always one and the same his Laws also do the like for which cause the Moral Law cannot be altered Secondly That whether the Matter whereon Laws are made continue or continue not if their end have once ceased they cease also to be of force as in the Law Ceremonial it fareth Finally That albeit the end continue as in that Law of Theft specified and in a great part of those ancient Judicials it doth yet for as much as there is not in all respects the same subject or matter remaining for which they were first instituted even this is sufficient cause of change And therefore Laws though both ordained of God himself and the end for which they were ordained continuing may notwithstanding cease it by alteration of persons or times they be found unsufficient to attain unto that end In which respect why may we not presume that God doth even call for such change or alteration as the very condition of things themselves doth make necessary They which do therefore plead the Authority of
of uncleanness they nourish the root out of which they grow they breed that iniquity which bred them The blot therefore of Sin abideth though the act be transitory And out of both ariseth a present debt to endure what punishment soever the evil which we have done deserveth an Obligation in the Chains whereof Sinners by the Justice of Almighty God continue bound till Repentance loose them Repent this thy Wickedness saith Peter unto Simon Magus beseech God that if it be possible the thought of thine heart may be pardoned for I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity In like manner Solomon The Wicked shall be held fast in the cords of his own sin Nor doth God only binde Sinners hand and foot by the dreadful determination of his own unsearchable Judgment against them but sometime also the Church bindeth by the Censures of her Discipline So that when Offenders upon their Repentance are by the same Discipline absolved the Church looseth but her own Bonds the Chains wherein she had tyed them before The act of Sin God alone remitteth in that his purpose is never to call it to account or to lay it unto mens charge The stain he washeth out by the sanctifying Grace of his Spirit And concerning the punishment of Sinne as none else hath power to cast Body and Soul into Hell fire so none power to deliver either besides him As for the Ministerial Sentence of private Absolution it can be no more than a Declaration what God hath done It hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sin Than which construction especially of words judicial there is not any thing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God The Jews in Malachi to have blessed Proud men which sinne and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy But to bless to Justifie and to Absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgement or Declaration as of true and real efficacy Yea even by the opinion of the Master of Sentences It may be soundly affirmed and thought that God alone doth remit and retain Sinnes although he have given Power to the Church to do both But he one way and the Church another He only by himself forgiveth Sinne who cleanseth the Soul from inward blemish and looseth the Debt of Eternal death So great a Priviledge he hath not given unto his Priests who notwithstanding are authorized to loose and binde that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed For albeit a man be already cleared before God yet he is not in the Church of God so taken but by the vertue of the Priests Sentence who likewise may be said to binde by imposing Satisfaction and to loose by admitting to the Holy Communion Saint Hierom also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth for more countenance of his own opinion doth no less plainly and directly affirm That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies So the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit Sin do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free For there is nothing more apparent than that the Discipline of Repentance both Publick and Private was ordained as an outward mean to bring men to the vertue of inward Conversion So that when this by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served only to declare men innocent But the cause wherefore they are so stiff and have forsaken their own Master in this point is for that they hold the private Discipline of Penitency to be a Sacrament Absolution an external sign in this Sacrament the signs external of all Sacraments in the New Testament to be both causes of that which they signifie and signs of that which they truly cause To this opinion concerning Sacraments they are now tyed by expounding a Canon in the Florentine Council according to the former Ecclesiastical invention received from Thomas For his device it was that the mercy of God which useth Sacraments as Instruments whereby to work indueth them at the time of their Administration with supernatural force and ability to induce Grace into the Souls of men Even as the Axe and Saw doth seem to bring Timber into that fashion which the minde of the Artificer intendeth His Conceipt Scotus Occam Petrus Alliacensis with sundry others do most earnestly and strongly impugn shewing very good reason wherefore no Sacrament of the new Law can either by vertue which it self hath or by force supernatural given it be properly a cause to work Grace but Sacraments are therefore said to work or conferr Grace because the will of Almighty God is although not to give them such efficacy yet himself to be present in the Ministry of the working that effect which proceedeth wholly from him without any real operation of theirs such as can enter into men's Souls In which construction seeing that our Books and Writings have made it known to the World how we joyn with them it seemeth very hard and injurious Dealing that Bellarmine throughout the whole course of his second Book De Sacramentis in genere should so boldly face down his Adversaries as if their opinion were that Sacraments are naked empty and ineffectual signes whererein there is no other force than only such as in Pictures to stir up the minde that so by theory and speculation of things represented Faith may grow Finally That all the operations which Sacraments have is a sensible and divine Instruction But had it pleased him not to hud-wink his own knowledge I nothing doubt but he fully saw how to answer himself it being a matter very strange and incredible that one which with so great diligence hath winowed his Adversarys Writings should be ignorant of their minds For even as in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man when his human nature is by it self considered we may not attribute that unto him which we do and must ascribe as oft as respect is had unto both natures combined so because in Sacraments there are two things distinctly to be considered the outward sign and the secret concurrence of Gods most blessed Spirit in which respect our Saviour hath taught that Water and the Holy Ghost are combined to work the mysterie of new birth Sacraments therefore as signs have only those effects before mentioned but of Sacraments in that by God's own Will and Ordinance they are signs assisted alwayes with the power of the Holy Ghost we acknowledge whatsoever either the places of the Scripture or the Authority of Councels and Fathers or the proofs and arguments of reason which he alledgeth can shew to be wrought by them The Elements and words have power of infallible signification for
the Body without the Soul in the Body Christ hath merited to make us just but as a medicine which is made for health doth not head by being made but by being applied so by the merits of Christ there can be no Justification without the application of his Merits Thus farr we joyn hands with the Church of Rome 5. Wherein then do we disagree We disagree about the future and offence of the Medicine whereby Christ cureth our Disease about the 〈…〉 of applying it about the number and the power of means which God requireth in as for the effectual applying thereof to our Souls comfort When they are re 〈…〉 that the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified they answer that it is a Divine Spiritual quality which quality received into the Soul doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God and secondly indue it with power to bring forth such works as they do that are born of him even as the Soul of Man being joyned to his Body doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable Creatures and secondly inable him to perform the natural Functions which are proper to his kinde That it maketh the Soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God in regard whereof it is termed Grace That is purgeth purifieth and washeth out all the stains and pollutions of sins that by it through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin so from eternal death and condemnation the reward of sin This Grace they will have to be applied by infusion to the end that as the Body is warm by the heat which is in the Body so the Soul might be righteous by inherent Grace which Grace they make capable of increase as the Body may be more and more warm so the Soul more and more justified according as Grace should be augmented the augmentation whereof is merited by good Works as good Works are made meritorious by it Wherefore the first receit of Grace in their Divinity is the first Justification the increase thereof the second Justification As Grace may be increased by the merit of good Works so it may be diminished by the demerit of sins venial it may be lost by mortal sin In as much therefore as it is needful in the one case to repair in the other to recover the loss which is made the infusion of Grace hath her sundry after-meals for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of Grace It is applyed to Infants through Baptism without either Faith or Works and in them really it taketh away Original sinne and the punishment due unto it It is applied to Infidels and wicked men in the first Justification through Baptism without Works yet not without Faith and it taketh away both Sinnes Actual and Original together with all whatsoever punishment eternal or temporal thereby deserved Unto such as have attained the first Justification that is to say the first receit of Grace it is applied farther by good Works to the increase of former Grace which is the second Justification If they work more and more Grace doth more increase and they are more and more justified To such as diminished it by venial sinnes it is applied by Holy-water Ave Marie's Crossings Papal Salutations and such like which serve for reparations of Grace decayed To such as have lost it through mortal sinne it is applied by the Sacrament as they term it of Penance which Sacrament hath force to conferr Grace anew yet in such sort that being so conferred it hath not altogether so much power as at the first For it onely cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sinne committed and changeth the punishment eternal into a temporal satisfactory punishment here if time doe serve if not hereafter to be endured except it be lightned by Masses Works of Charity Pilgrimages Fasts and such like or else shortned by pardon for term or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away This is the mystery of the man of sinne This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her Followers to tread when they ask her the way to Justification I cannot stand now to untip this Building and to siâ— it piece by piece onely I will passe by it in few words that that may befall Bâ—… in the presence of that which God hath builded as hapned unto Dagon before the Ark. 6. Doubtless saith the Apostle I have counted all things loss and judge them to be doing that I may win Christ and to be found in him not having my own righteousness but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God through Faith Whether they speak of the first or second Justification they make it the essence of a Divine quality inherent they make it Righteousnesse which is in us If it be in us then is it ours as our Souls are ours though we have them from God and can hold them no longer than pleaseth him for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils we fall to dust but the Righteousness wherein we must be found if we will be justified is not our own therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him In him God findeth us if we be faithful for by Faith we are incorporated into Christ. Then although in our selves we be altogether sinful and unrighteous yet even the man which is impious in himself full of iniquity full of sin him being found in Christ through Faith and having his sinne remitted through Repentance him God upholdeth with a gracious eye putteth away his sinne by not imputing it taketh quite away the Punishment due thereunto by pardoning it and accepteth him in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him in the Law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole Law I must take heed what I say but the Apostle saith God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Such we are in the sight of God the Father as is the very Son of God himself Let it be counted folly or frensie or fury whatsoever it is our comfort and our wisdom we care for no knowledge in the World but this That man hath sinned and God hath suffered That God hath made himself the Son of Man and that men are made the righteousness of God You see therefore that the Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the truth of Christ and that by the hands of the Apostles we have received otherwise than she reacheth Now concerning the righteousness of Sanctification we deny it not to be inherent we grant that unless we work we have it not onely we distinguish it as a thing different in nature from the righteousness of Justification we are righteous the one
Iudges in that Court to be their Ministers others of the people annually chosen twice so many in number as they to be Iudges together with them in the same Court These two sorts to have the care of all Mens manners power of determining of all kinde of Ecclesiastical Causes and authority to Convent to Controll to Punish as far as with Excommunication whom soever they should think worthy none either small or great excepted This device I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered if we duly consider what the present State of Geneva did then require For their Bishop and his Clergy being as it is said departed from them by Moon-light or howsoever being departed to chuse in his room any other Bishop had been a thing altogether impossible And for their Ministers to seek that themselves alone might have coercive power over the whole Church would perhaps have been hardly construed at that time But when so frank an offer was made that for every one Minister there should be two of the people to sit and give voice in the Ecclesiastical Consistory what inconvenience could they easily finde which themselves might not be able always to remedy Howbeit as ever more the simpler sort are even when they see no apparent cause jealous notwithstanding over the secret intents and purposes of wiser men this Proposition of his did somewhat trouble them Of the Ministers themselves which had staid behinde in the City when Calvin was gone some upon knowledge of the peoples earnest intent to recal him to his place again had beforehand written their Letters of Submission and assured him of their alleâ—giance for ever after if it should like him to hearken unto that Publick Suit But yet misdoubting what might happen if this Discipline did go forward they objected against it the example of other Reformed Churches living quietly and orderly without it Some of the chiefest place and countenance amongst the Laity professed with greater stomach their judgments that such a Discipline was little better then Popish Tyranny disguised and tendered unto them under a new Form This sort it may be had some fear that the filling up of the Seats in the Consistory with so great a member of Laymen was but to please the mindes of the people to the end they might think their own sway somewhat but when things came to tryal of practice their Pastors learning would be at all times of force to over-perswade simple men who knowing the time of their own Presidentship to be but short would always stand in fear of their Ministers perpetual authority And among the Ministers themselves one being so far in estimation above the rest the voices of the rest were likely to be given for the most part respectively with a kinde of secret dependency and aw So that in shew a marvellous indifferently composed Senate Ecclesiastical was to govern but in effect one onely man should as the Spirit and Soul of the residue do all in all But what did these vain surmises boot Brought they were now to so strait an issue that of two things they must chuse one Namely Whether they would to their endless disgrace with ridiculous lightness dismiss him whose restitution they had in so impotent manner desired or else condescend unto that demand wherein he was resolute either to have it or to leave them They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home then for ever abroad discredited Wherefore in the end those Orders were on all sides assented unto with no less alacrity of minde then Cities unable to hold out longer are wont to shew when they take conditions such as liketh him to offer them which hath them in the narrow streights of advantage Not many years were over passed before these twice-sworn men adventured to give their last and hottest assault to the Fortress of the same Discipline childishly granting by common consent of their whole Senate and that under their Town-Seal a Relaxation to one Bertelier whom the Eldership had Excommunicated Further also decreeing with strange absurdity that to the same Senate it should belong to give final judgment in Matter of Excommunication and to absolve whom it pleased them clean contrary to their own former Deeds and Oaths The report of which Decree being fortwith brought unto Calvin Before saith he this Decree take place either my Blood or Banishment shall sign it Again two days before the Communion should be celebrated this speech was publickly to like effect Kill me if ever this hand do teach forth the things that are holy to them whom the Church hath judged despisers Whereupon for fear of tumult the forenamed Bertelier was by his friends advised for that time not to use the liberty granted him by the Senate nor to present himself in the Church till they saw somewhat further what would ensue After the Communion quietly ministred and some likelihood of peaceable ending of these troubles without any more aâ—â— that very day in the afternoon besides all mens expectation concluding his ordinary Sermon he telleth them That because he neither had learned nor taught to strive with such as are in Authority therefore saith he the case so standing as now it doth let me use these words of the Apostle unto you I commend you unto God and the Word of his Grace and so bad them heartily Adieu It sometimes cometh to pass that the readiest way which a wise man hath to conquer is to flie This voluntary and unexpected mention of sudden departure caused presently the Senate for according to their wonted manner they still continued onely constant in unconstancy to gather themselves together and for a time to suspend their own Decree leaving things to proceed as before till they had heard the judgment of Four Helvetian Cities concerning the matter which was in strife This to have done at the first before they gave assent unto any order had shewed some wit and discretion in them but now to do it was as much as to say in effect That they would play their parts on a stage Calvin therefore dispatcheth with all expedition his Letters unto some Principal Pastor in every of those Cities craving earnestly at their hands to respect this Cause as a thing whereupon the whole State of Religion and Piety in that Church did so much depend That God and all good men were now inevitably certain to be trampled under foot unless those Four Cities by their good means might be brought to give sentence with the Ministers of Geneva when the Cause should be brought before them yea so to give it that two things it might effectually contain The one an Absolute Approbation of the Discipline of Geneva as consonant unto the Word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands the other an earnest Admonition not to innovate or charge the same His vehement request herein as touching both points was satisfied For albeit the said Helvetian Churches did never as yet
World whereby the one sort are named The Brethren the Godly and so forth the other Worldlings Time-servers Pleasers of Men not of God with such like From hence they are easily drawn on to think it exceeding necessary for fear of quenching that good Spirit to use all means whereby the same may be both strengthned in themselves and made manifest unto others This maketh them diligent bearers of such as are known that way to incline this maketh them eager to take and seek all occasions of secret Conference with such this maketh them glad to use such as Counsellors and Directors in all their dealings which are of weight as Contracts Testaments and the like this maketh them through an unweariable desire of receiving instruction from the Masters of that Company to cast off the care of those very affairs which do most concern their estate and to think that then they are like unto Mary commendable for making choice of the better part Finally This is it which maketh them willing to charge yea oftentimes even to over-charge themselves for such Mens sustenance and relief least their zeal to the Cause should any way be unwitnessed For what is it which poor beguiled souls will not do through so powerful incitements In which respect it is also noted that most labor hath been bestowed to win and retain towards this Cause them whose judgments are commonly weakest by reason of their sex And although not Women loaden with sins as the Apostle St. Paul speaketh but as we verily esteem of them for the most part Women propense and inclinable to holiness be otherwise edified in good things rather then carried away as captives into any kinde of sin and evil by such as enter into their houses with purpose to plant there a zeal and a love towards this kinde of Discipline yet some occasion is hereby ministred for Men to think that if the Cause which is thus furthered did gain by the soundness of proof whereupon it doth build it self it would not most busily endeavor to prevail where least ability of judgment is And therefore that this so eminent industry in making Proselytes more of that sex then of the other groweth for that they are deemed apter to serve as instruments and helps in the Cause Apter they are through the eagerness of their affection that maketh them which way soever they take diligent in drawing their Husbands Children Servants Friends and Allies the same way Apter through that natural inclination unto pity which breedeth in them a greater readiness then in men to be bountiful towards their Preachers who suffer want Apter through sundry opportunities which they especially have to procure encouragements for their Brethren Finally Apter through a singular delight which they take in giving very large and particular intelligence how all near about them stand affected as concerning the same Cause But be they Women or be they Men if once they have tasted of that Cup let any man of contrary opinion open his mouth to perswade them they close up their ears his Reasons they weigh not all is answered with rehearsal of the words of John We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us As for the rest Ye are of the World for this Worlds pomp and vanity it is that ye speak and the World whose ye are heareth you Which cloke sitteth no less fit oâ— the lack of their Cause then of the Anabaptists when the Dignity Authority and Honor of Gods Magistrates is upheld against them Shew these eagerly-affected men their inability to judge of such matters their answer is God hath chosen the simple Convince them of Folly and that so plainly that very children upbraid them with it they have their bucklers of like defence Christs own Apostle was accounted mad The best men evermore by the sentence of the World have been judged to be out of their right mindes When instruction doth them no good let them feel but the least degree of most mercifully tempered Severity they fasten on the head of the Lords Vicegerents here on Earth whatsoever they any where finde uttered against the cruelty of Blood-thirsty men and to themselves they draw all the Sentences which Scripture hath in the favor of Innocency persecuted for the Truth yea they are of their due and deserved sufferings no less proud then those ancient disturbers to whom St. Augustine writeth saying Martyrs rightly so named are they not which suffer for their disorder and for the ungodly breach they have made of Christian Unity but which for Righteousness sake are persecuted For Agar also suffered persecution at the hands of Sara wherein she which did impose was holy and she unrighteous which did bear the burthen In like sort with the Theeves was the Lord himself crucified but they who were matcht in the pain which they suffered were in the cause of their sufferings dis-joyned If that must needs be the true Church which doth endure persecution and not that which persecuteth let them ask of the Apostle what Church Sara did represent when she held her Maid in affliction For even our Mother which is free the Heavenly Ierusalem that is to say The true Church of God was as he doth affirm prefigured in that very Woman by whom the Bond-maid was so sharply handled Although if all things be throughly skanned she did in truth more persecute Sara by proud resistance then Sara her by severity of punishment These are the paths wherein ye have walked that are of the ordinary sort of men these are the very steps ye have trodden and the manifest degrees whereby ye are of your Guides and Directors trained up in that School A custom of inuring your ears with reproof of faults especially in your Governors and use to attribute those faults to the kinde of Spiritual Regiment under which ye live boldness in warranting the force of their Discipline for the cure of all such evils a slight of framing your conceits to imagine that Scripture every where favoreth that Discipline perswasion that the cause why ye finde it in Scripture is the illumination of the Spirit that the same Spirit is a Seal unto you of your nearness unto God that ye are by all means to nourish and witness it in your selves and to strengthen on every side your mindes against whatsoever might be of force to withdraw you from it 4. Wherefore to come unto you whose judgment is a Lanthorn of Direction for all the rest you that frame thus the peoples hearts not altogether as I willingly perswade my self of a politick intent or purpose but your selves being first over-borne with the weight of greater mens judgments on your shoulders is laid the burthen of upholding the cause by Argument For which purpose Sentences out of the Word of God ye alledge divers but so that when the same are aiscust thus it always in a manner falleth out That what things by vertue thereof ye urge upon us as altogether
Earth pine away as Children at the withered Brests of their Mother no longerable to yield them relief What would become of Man himself whom these things now do all serve See we not plainly that obedience of Creatures unto the Law of Nature is the stay of the whole World Notwithstanding with Nature it cometh sometimes to pass as with art Let Phidias have rude and obstinate stuff to carve though his art do that it should his work will lack that beauty which otherwise in fitter matter it might have had He that striketh an Instrument with skill may cause notwithstanding a very unpleasant sound if the string whereon he striketh chance to be uncapable of harmony In the matter whereof things natural consist that of Theophrastus takes place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much of it is oftentimes such as will by no means yield to receive that impression which were best and most perfect Which defect in the matter of things natural they who gave themselves unto the contemplation of nature amongst the Heathen observed often But the true original cause thereof Divine Malediction laid for the sin of Man upon these Creatures which God had made for the use of Man this being an Article of that saving truth which God hath revealed unto his Church was above thereach of their meerly natural capacity and understanding But howsoever these swervings are now and then incident into the course of Nature nevertheless so constantly the Laws of Nature are by Natural Agents observed that no man denieth but those things which Nature worketh are wrought either always or for the most part after one and the same manner If here it be demanded What that is which keepeth Nature in obedience to her own Law we must have recourse to that higher Law whereof we have already spoken and because all other Laws do thereon depend from thence we must borrow so much as shall need for brief resolution in this point Although we are not of opinion therefore as some are that Nature in working hath before her certain exemplary draughts or patterns which subsisting in the bosom of the Highest and being thence discovered she fixeth her eye upon them as Travellers by Sea upon the Pole-star of the World and that according thereunto she guideth her hand to work by imitation Although we rather embrace the Oracle of Hippocrates That each thing both in small and in great fulfilleth the task which destiny hath set down And concerning the manner of excecuting and fulfilling the same What they do they know not yet is it in shew and appearance as though they did know what they do and the truth is they do not discern the things which they look on Nevertheless for as much as the works of Nature are no less exact then if she did both behold and study how to express some absolute shape or mirror always present before her yea such her dexterity and skill appeareth that no intellectual Creature in the World were able by capacity to do that which Nature doth without capacity and knowledge it cannot be but Nature hath some Directer of infinite knowledge to guide her in all her ways Who the guide of Nature but onely the God of Nature In him we live move and are Those things which Nature is said to do are by Divine Art performed using Nature as an Instrument nor is there any such Art or Knowledge Divine in Nature her self working but in the guide of Natures work Whereas therefore things natural which are not in the number of Voluntary Agents for of such onely we now speak and of no other do so necessarily observe their certain Laws that as long as they keep those Forms which give them their Being they cannot possibly be apt or inclinable to do otherwise then they do seeing the kindes of their operations are both constantly and exactly framed according to the several ends for which they serve they themselves in the mean while though doing that which is fit yet knowing neither what they do nor why It followeth that all which they do in this sort proceedeth originally from some such Agent as knoweth appointeth holdeth up and even actually frameth the same The manner of this Divine Efficiency being far above us we are no more able to conceive by our Reason then Creatures unreasonable by their Sense are able to apprehend after what manner we dispose and order the course of our affairs Onely thus much is discerned that the Natural Generation and Process of all things receiveth order of proceeding from the setled stability of Divine Understanding This appointeth unto them their kindes of working the disposition whereof in the Purity of Gods own Knowledge and Will is rightly termed by the name of Providence The same being referred unto the things themselves here disposed by it was wont by the Ancient to be called Natural Destiny That Law the performance whereof we behold in things natural is as it were an authentical or an original Draught written in the bosom of God himself whose Spirit being to execute the same useth every particular nature every meer natural agent onely as an Instrument created at the beginning and ever since the beginning used to work his own will and pleasure withal Nature therefore is nothing else but Gods Instrument In the course whereof Dionysius perceiving some sudden disturbance is said to have cryed out Aut Dens natura patitur aut mundi machina dissolvitur Either God doth suffer impediment and is by a greater then himself hindred or if that be impossible then hath he determined to make a present dissolution of the World the execution of that Law beginning now to stand still without which the World cannot stand This Workman whose servitor Nature is being in truth but onely One the Heathens imagining to be moe gave him in the Skie the name of Iupiter in the Air the name of Iune in the Water the name of Neptune in the Earth the name of Vesla and sometimes of Ceres the name of Apollo in the Sun in the Moon the name of Diana the name of AEolus and divers other in the Winds and to conclude even so many Guides of Nature they dreamed of as they saw there were kindes of things natural in the World These they honored as having power to work or cease accordingly as men deseived of them But unto us there is one onely Guide of all Agents Natural and he both the Creator and the Worker of all in all alone to be blessed adored and honored by all forever That which hitherto hath been spoken concerneth Natural Agents considered in themselves But we must further remember also which thing to touch in a word shall suffice That as in this respect they have their Law which Law directeth them in the means whereby they tend to their own perfection so likewise another Law there is which toucheth them as they are sociable parts united into one Body A Law which bindeth them each to
proceedeth not from God himself as from the supream cause of all things and every effect doth after a sort contain at leastwise resemble the cause from which it proceedeth All things in the World are said in some sort to seek the highest and to cover more or less the participation of God himself yet this doth no where so much appear as it doth in Man because there are so many kindes of Perfections which Man seeketh The first degree of Goodness is that General Perfection which all things do seek in desiring the continuance of their Being all things therefore coveting as much as may be to be like unto God in Being ever that which cannot hereunto attain personally doth seek to continue it self another way that is by Off-spring and Propagation The next degree of Goodness is that which each thing coveteth by affecting resemblance with God in the constancy and excellency of those operations which belong unto their kinde The Immutability of God they strive unto by working either always or for the most part after one and the same manner his absolute exactness they imitate by tending unto that which is most exquisite in every particular Hence have risen a number of Axioms in Philosophy shewing How the works of nature do always aim at that which cannot be bettered These two kindes of Goodness rehearsed are so nearly united to the things themselves which desire them that we scarcely perceive the appetite to stir in reaching forth her hand towards them But the desire of those Perfections which grow externally is more apparent especially of such as are not expresly desired unless they be first known or such as are not for any other cause then for Knowledge it self desired Concerning Perfections in this kinde that by proceeding in the Knowledge of Truth and by growing in the exercise of Vertue Man amongst the Creatures of this inferior World aspireth to the greatest Conformity with God This is not onely known unto us whom he himself hath so instructed but even they do acknowledge who amongst men are not judged the nearest unto him With Plato what one thing more usual then to excite men unto the love of Wisdom by shewing how much wise men are thereby exalted above men how knowledge doth raise them up into Heaven how it maketh them though not Gods yet â—as Gods high admirable and divine And Mercurius Trismegistus speaking of the vertues of a righteous Soul Such spirits saith he are never slayed with praising and speaking well of all men with doing good unto every one by word and deed because they study to frame themselves according to THE PATTERN of the Father of Spirits 6. In the Matter of Knowledge there is between the Angels of God and the Children of Men this difference Angels already have full and compleat knowledge in the highest degree that can be imparted unto them Men if we view them in their Spring are at the first without understanding or knowledge at all Nevertheless from this utter vacuity they grow by degrees till they come at length to be even as the Angels themselves are That which agreeth to the one now the other shall attain unto in the end they are not so far disjoyned and severed but that they comest length to meet The Soul of Man being therefore at the first as a Book wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto Perfection of Knowledge Unto that which hath been already set down concerning Natural Agents this we must add That albeit therein we have comprised as well Creatures living as void of life if they be in degree of nature beneath Men nevertheless a difference we must observe between those Natural Agents that work altogether unwittingly and those which have though weak yet some understanding what they do as Fishes Fowls and Beasts have Beasts are in sensible capacity as ripe even as men themselves perhaps more ripe For as Stones though in dignity of Nature inferior unto Plants yet exceed them in firmness of strength or durability of Being and Plants though beneath the excellency of Creatures endued with sense yet exceed them in the Faculty of Vegetation and of Fertility So Beasts though otherwise behinde Men may notwithstanding in actions of Sense and Fancy go beyond them because the endeavors of Nature when it hath an higher perfection to seek are in lower the more remiss not esteeming thereof so much as those things do which have no better proposed unto them The Soul of Man therefore being capable of a more Divine Perfection hath besides the Faculties of growing unto sensible knowledge which is common unto us with Beasts a further hability whereof in them there is no shew at all the ability of reaching higher then unto sensible things Till we grow to some ripeness of years the Soul of Man doth onely store it self with conceits of things of inferior and more open quality which afterwards do serve as Instruments unto that which is greater in the mean while above the reach of meaner Creatures is ascendeth not When once it comprehendeth any thing above this as the differences of time affirmations negations and contradiction in Speech we then count it to have some use of Natural Reason Whereunto if afterwards there might be added the right helps of true Art and Learning which helps I must plainly confess this age of the World carrying the name of a Learned Age doth neither much know not greatly regard there would undoubtedly be almost as great difference in maturity of judgment between men therewith inured and that which now men are as between men that are now and Innocents Which speech if any condemn as being over Hyperbolical let them consider but this one thing No Art is at the first finding out so perfect as Industry may aftermake it yet the very first Man that to any purpose knew the way we speak of and followed it hath alone thereby performed more very near in all parts of Natural Knowledge then sithence in any one part thereof the whole World besides hath done In the poverty of that other new devised aid two things there are notwithstanding singular Of marvellous quick dispatch it is and doth shew them that have it as much almost in three days as if it had dwelt threescore years with them Again because the curiosity of Mans wit doth many times with perswade farther in the search of things then were convenient the same is thereby restrained unto such generalities as every where offering themselves are apparent unto men of the weakest conceit that need be So as following the Rules and Precepts thereof we may finde it to be an Art which teacheth the way of speedy Discourse and restraineth the minde of Man that it may not wax overwise Education and Instruction are the means the one by use the other by precept to make our Natural Faculty of Reason both the better and
which we call Ius or Right to be the Daughter of Heaven and Earth We know things either as they are in themselves or as they are in mutual relation one to another The knowledge of that which Man is in reference unto himself and other things in relation unto Man I may justly term the Mother of all those Principles which are as it were Edicts Statutes and Decrees in that Law of Nature whereby Humane Actions are framed First therefore having observed that the best things where they are not hindred do still produce the best Operations for which cause where many things are to concur unto one effect the best is in all congruity of Reason to guide the residue that it prevailing most the work principally done by it may have greatest perfection when hereupon we come to observe in our selves of what excellency our Souls are in comparison of our Bodies and the divine part in relation unto the baser of our Souls seeing that all these concur in producing Humane Actions it cannot be well unless the chiefest do command and direct the rest The Soul then ought to conduct the Body and the Spirit of our Mindes the Soul This is therefore the first Law whereby the highest power of the Minde requireth general obedience at the hands of all the rest concurring with it unto Action Touching the several grand Mandates which being imposed by the understanding Faculty of the Minde must be obeyed by the Will of Man they are by the same method found out whether they import our duty towards God or towards Man Touching the one I may not here stand to open by what degrees of discourse the Mindes even of meer Natural Men have attained to know not onely that there is a God but also what Power Force Wisdom and other properties that God hath and how all things depend on him This being therefore presupposed from that known relation which God hath unto us as unto children and unto all good things as unto effects whereof himself is the principal cause these Axioms and Laws Natural concerning our duty have arisen That in all things we go about his aid is by Prayer to be craved That be cannot have sufficient honor done unto him but the uttermost of that we can do to honor him we must which is in effect the same that we read Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy minde Which Law our Saviour doth term The first and the great Commandment Touching the next which as our Saviour addeth as like unto this he meaneth in amplitude and largeness in as much as it is the Root out of which all Laws of duty to Men-ward have grown as out of the former all Offices of Religion towards God the like Natural enducement hath brought men to know that it is their duty no less to love others then themselves For seeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure if I cannot but wish to receive all good even as much at every mans hand as any man can wish unto his own soul how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is undoubtedly in other men we all being of one and the same Nature To have any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieve them as much as me So that if I do harm I must look to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me then they have by me shewed unto them My desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth upon me a natural duty of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection From which relation of equality between our selves and them that are as our selves what several Rules and Canons Natural Reason hath drawn for direction of life no man is ignorant as namely That because we would take no harm we must therefore do none that sith we would not be in any thing extreamly dealt with we must our selves avoid all extremity in our dealings that from all violence and wrong we are utterly to abstain with such like which further to wade in would be tedious and to our present purpose not altogether so necessary seeing that on these two General Heads already mentioned all other specialities are dependent Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings is the sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to be done Which sentence is either mandatory shewing what must be done or else permissive declaring onely what may be done or thirdly admonitory opening what is the most convenient for us to do The first taketh place where the comparison doth stand altogether between doing and not doing of one thing which in it self is absolutely good or evil as it had been for Ioseph to yield or not to yield to the impotent desire of his leud Mistress the one evil the other good simply The second is when of divers things evil all being not evitable we are permitted to take one which one saving onely in case of so great urgency were not otherwise to be taken as in the matter of Divorce amongst the Jews The last when of divers things good one is principal and most eminent as in their act who sold their possessions and laid the price at the Apostles feet which possessions they might have retained unto themselves without sin Again in the Apostle St. Pauls own choice to maintain himself by his own labor whereas in living by the Churches maintenance as others did there had been no offence committed In goodness therefore there is a latitude or extent whereby it cometh to pass that even of good actions some are better then other some whereas otherwise one man could not excel another but all should be either absolutely good as hitting jump that indivisible Point or Centre wherein goodness consisteth or else missing it they should be excluded out of the number of well-doers Degrees of well-doing there could be none except perhaps in the seldomness and oftenness of doing well But the Nature of Goodness being thus ample a Law is properly that which Reason in such sort defineth to be good that it must be done And the Law of Reason or Humane Nature is that which men by discourse of Natural Reason have rightly found out themselves to be all for ever bound unto in their actions Laws of Reason have these marks to be known by Such as keep them resemble most lively in their voluntary actions that very manner of working which Nature her self doth necessarily observe in the course of the whole World The Works of Nature are all behoveful beautiful without superfluity or defect even so theirs if they be framed according to that which the Law of Reason teacheth Secondly Those Laws are investigable by Reason without
the Holy Ghost And the end of all Scripture is the same which Saint Iohn proposeth in the writing of that most Divine Gospel namely Faith and through Faith Salvation Yea all Scripture is to this effect in it self available as they which wrote it were perswaded unless we suppose that the Evangelists or others in speaking of their own intent to instruct and to save by writing had a secret Conceit which they never opened to any a Conceit that no man in the World should ever be that way the better for any Sentence by them written till such time as the same might chance to be preached upon or alledged at the least in a Sermon Otherwise if he which writeth doth that which is forceable in it self how should he which readeth be thought to do that which in it self is of no force to work Belief and to save Believers Now although we have very just cause to stand in some jealousie and fear lest by thus overvaluing their Sermons they make the price and estimation of Scripture otherwise notified to fall nevertheless so impatient they are that being but requested to let us know what causes they leave for mens incouragement to attend to the reading of the Scripture if Sermons only be the power of God to save every one which believeth that which we move for our better learning and instruction-sake turneth unto anger and choler in them they grow altogether out of quietness with it they answer fumingly that they are ashamed to defile their Pens with making answer to such idle questions yet in this their mood they cast forth somewhat wherewith under pain of greater displeasure we must rest contented They tell us the profit of Reading is singular in that it serveth for a Preparative unto Sermons it helpeth prettily towards the nourishment of Faith which Sermons have once ingendred it is some stay to his minde which readeth the Scripture when he findeth the same things there which are taught in Sermons and thereby perceiveth how God doth concurr in opinion with the Preacher besides it keepeth Sermons in memory and doth in that respect although not feed the Soul of man yet help the retentive force of that stomack of the minde which receiveth ghostly â—ood at the Preachers hands But the principal cause of writing the Gospel was that it might be preached upon or interpreted by publick Ministers apt and authorized thereunto Is it credible that a superstitious conceit for it is no better concerning Sermons should in such sort both darken their Eyes and yet sharpen their Wits withall that the only true and weightly cause why Scripture was written the cause which in Scripture is so often mentioned the cause which all men have ever till this present day acknowledged this they should clean exclude as being no cause at all and load us with so great store of strange concealed causes which did never see light till now In which number the rest must needs be of moment when the very chiefest cause of committing the Sacred Word of God unto Books is surmised to have been lest the Preacher should want a Text whereupon to scholie Men of Learning hold it for a slip in Judgement when offer is made to demonstrate that as proper to one thing which Reason findeth common unto moe Whereas therefore they take from all kindes of teachings that which they attribute to Sermons it had been their part to yield directly some strong reason why between Sermons alone and Faith there should be ordinarily that coherence which causes have with their usual effects why a Christian man's belief should so naturally grow from Sermons and not possibly from any other kinde of teaching In belief there being but these two operations Apprehension and Assent Do only Sermons cause Belief in that no other way is able to explain the mysteries of God that the minde may rightly apprehend or conceive them as behooveth We all know that many things are believed although they be intricate obscure and dark although they exceed the reach and capacity of our Wits yea although in this World they be no way possible to be understood Many things believed are likewise so plain that every Common Person may therein be unto himself a sufficient Expounder Finally to explain even those things which need and admit explication many other usual ways there are besides Sermons Therefore Sermons are not the only ordinary means whereby we first come to apprehend the Mysterys of God Is it in regard then of Sermons only that apprehending the Gospel of Christ we yield thereunto our unfeigned assent as to a thing infallibly true They which rightly consider after what sort the heart of man hereunto is framed must of necessity acknowledge that who so assenteth to the words of Eternal life doth it in regard of his Authority whose words they are This is in man's conversion unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first step whereat his race towards Heaven beginneth Unless therefore clean contrary to our own experience we shall think it a miracle if any man acknowledge the Divine authority of the Scripture till some Sermon have perswaded him thereunto and that otherwise neither conversation in the bosome of the Church nor religious Education nor the reading of Learned mens Books nor Information received by conference nor whatsoever pain and diligence in hearing studying meditating day and night on the Law is so far blest of God as to work this effect in any man how would they have us to grant that Faith doth not come but only by heating Sermons Fain they would have us to believe the Apostle Saint Paul himself to be Author of this their Paradox only because he hath said that it pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them which believe and again How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard How shall they hear without a Preacher How shall men preach except they be sent To answer therefore both Allegations at once The very substance of what they contain is in few but this Life and Salvation God will have offered unto all his will is that Gentiles should be saved as well as Jews Salvation belongeth unto none but such as call upon the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ. Which Nations as yet unconverted neither do not possibly can do till they believe What they are to believe impossible it is they should know till they bear it Their Hearing requireth our Preaching unto them Tertullian to draw even Painyms themselves unto Christian Belief willeth the Books of the Old Testament to be searched which were at that time in Ptolemics Library And if men did not lift to travel so far though it were for their endless good he addeth that in Rome and other places the Jews had Synagogues whereunto every one which would might resort that this kinde of Liberty they purchased by payment
that over-corrupt Fountain from which they come In our speech of most holy things our most frail affections many times are bewrayed Wherefore when we read or recite the Scripture we then deliver to the People properly the Word of God As for our Sermons be they never so sound and perfect his Word they are not as the Sermons of the Prophets were no they are but ambiguously termed his Word because his Word is commonly the Subject whereof they treat and must be the Rule whereby they are framed Notwithstanding by these and the like shifts they derive unto Sermons alone whatsoever is generally spoken concerning the Word Again what seemeth to have been uttered concerning Sermons and their efficacy or necessity in regard of Divine matter and must consequently be verified in sundry other kindes of teaching if the Matter be the same in all their use is to fasten every such Speech unto that one only manner of teaching which is by Sermons that still Sermons may be all in all Thus because Solomon declareth that the People decay or perish for want of Knowledge where no Prophecying at all is they gather that the hope of Life and Salvation is cut off where Preachers are not which prophecy by Sermons how many soever they be in number that read daily the Word of God and deliver though in other sort the self-same matter which Sermons do The people which have no way to come to the knowledge of God no prophecying no teaching perish But that they should of necessity perish where any one way of knowledge lacketh is more then the words of Solomon import Another usual point of their Art in this present question is to make very large and plentiful Discourses how Christ is by Sermons lifted up higher and made more apparent to the eye of Faith how the savour of the Word is more sweet being brayed and more able to nourish being divided by Preaching then by only reading proposed how Sermons are the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and do open the Scriptures which being but read remain in comparison still clasped how God giveth richer increase of grace to the Ground that is planted and watered by Preaching than by bare and simple Reading Out of which premises declaring how attainment unto life is easier where Sermons are they conclude an impossibility thereof where Sermons are not Alcidimas the Sophister hath many arguments to prove that voluntary and extemporal far excelleth premeditated speech The like whereunto and in part the same are brought by them who commend Sermons as having which all men I think will acknowledge sundry peculiar and proper vertues such as no other way of Teaching besides hath Aptness to follow particular occasions presently growing to put life into words by countenance voyce and gesture to prevail mightily in the sudden affections of men this Sermons may challenge Wherein notwithstanding so eminent properties whereof Lessons are haply destitute yet Lessons being free from some inconveniences whereunto Sermons are more subject they may in this respect no less take then in other they must give the hand which betokeneth preeminence For there is nothing which is not some way excell'd even by that which it doth excel Sermons therefore and Lessons may each excell other in some respects without any prejudice unto either as touching that vital force which they both have in the work of our Salvation To which effect when we have endeavoured as much as in us doth lye to finde out the strongest causes wherefore they should imagine that Reading is itself so unavailable the most we can learn at their hands is that Sermons are the Ordinance of God the Scriptures dark and the labour of Reading easie First therefore as we know that God doth aide with his grace and by his special providence evermore bless with happy success those things which himself appointeth so his Church we perswade our selves he hath not in such sort given over to a reprobate sense that whatsoever it deviseth for the good of the Souls of men the same he doth still accurse and make frustrate Or if he always did defeat the Ordinances of his Church is not reading the Ordinance of God Wherefore then should we think that the force of his secret grace is accustomed to bless the labour of dividing his Word according unto each man's private discretion in publick Sermons and to withdraw it self from concurring with the publick delivery thereof by such selected portions of Scriptures as the whole Church hath solemnly appointed to be read for the Peoples good either by ordinary course or otherwise according to the exigence of special occasions Reading saith Isidore is to the Hearers no small edifying To them whose delight and meditation is in the Law seeing that happiness and bliss belongeth it is not in us to deny them the benefit of heavenly Grace And I hope we may presume that a rare thing it is not in the Church of God even for that very Word which is read to be both presently their joy and afterwards their study that hear it S. Augustin speaking of devout men noteth how they daily frequented the Church how attentive ear they gave unto the Lessons and Chapters read how careful they were to remember the same and to muse thereupon by themselves St. Cyprian observeth that Reading was not without effect in the hearts of men Their joy and alacity was to him an argument that there is in this Ordinance a blessing such as ordinarily doth accompany the administration of the Word of Life It were much if there should be such a difference between the hearing of Sermons preached and of Lessons read in the Church that he which presenteth himself at the one and maketh his Prayer with the Prophet David Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes direct me in the path of thy commandments might have the ground of usual experience wherupon to build his hope of prevailing with God and obtaining the Grace he seeketh they contrariwise not so who crave the like assistance of his Spirit when they give ear to the reading of the other In this therefore Preaching and Reading are equal that both are approved as his Ordinances both assisted with his Grace And if his Grace do assist them both to the nourishment of faith already bred we cannot without some very manifest cause yielded imagin that in breeding or begetting faith his grace doth cleave to the one and utterly forsake the other Touching hardness which is the second pretended impediment as against Homilies being plain and popular instructions it is no bar so neither doth it infringe the efficacy no not of Scriptures although but read The force of reading how small soever they would have it must of necessity be granted sufficient to notifie that which is plain or easie to be understood And of things necessary to all mens salvation we have been hitherto accustomed
that which ordereth his Work is Wisdom and that which perfecteth his Work is Power All things which God in their times and seasons hath brought forth were eternally and before all times in God as a work unbegun is in the Artificer which afterward bringeth it unto effect Therefore whatsoever we do behold now in this present World it was inwrapped within the Bowels of Divine Mercy written in the Book of Eternal Wisdom and held in the hands of Omnipotent Power the first Foundations of the World being as yet unlaid So that all things which God hath made are in that respect the Off-spring of God they are in him as effects in their highest cause he likewise actually is in them the assistance and influence of his Deity is their life Let hereunto saving efficacy be added and it bringeth forth a special Off-spring amongst men containing them to whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable name of Sons We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God created Adam he created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they spring The Sons of God we neither are all nor any one of us otherwise then onely by grace and favor The Sons of God have Gods own Natural Son as a second Adam from Heaven whose Race and Progeny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth God therefore loving eternally his Son he must needs eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These were in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator onely It was the purpose of his saving Goodness his saving Wisdom and his saving Power which inclined it self towards them They which thus were in God eternally by their intended admission to life have by vocation or adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in the Work which his hand doth presently frame Life as all other gifts and benefits groweth originally from the Father and cometh not to us but by the Son nor by the Son to any of us in particular but through the Spirit For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Which three St. Peter comprehendeth in one The participation of Divine Nature We are therefore in God through Christ eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made his in this present World before the World it self was made We are in God through the knowledge which is had of us and the love which is born towards us from everlasting But in God we actually are no longer then onely from the time of our actual Adoption into the Body of his true Church into the Fellowship of his Children For his Church he knoweth and loveth so that they which are in the Church are thereby known to be in him Our being in Christ by Eternal fore-knowledge saveth us not without our Actual and Real Adoption into the Fellowship of his Saints in this present World For in him we actually are by our actual incorporation into that Society which hath him for their Head and doth make together with him one Body he and they in that respect having one name for which cause by vertue of this Mystical Conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate with his We are in Christ because he knoweth and loveth us even as parts of himself No man actually is in him but they in whom he actually is For he which hath not the Son of God hath not Life I am the Vine and ye are the Branches He which abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the onely begotten Son of God whose Life is the Well-spring and cause of ours It is too cold an interpretation whereby some men expound our Being in Christ to import nothing else but onely That the self-same Nature which maketh us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as we are For what man in the World is there which hath not so far forth communion with Jesus Christ It is not this that can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of us in Christ and in his Church and in his Church as by Nature we were in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam And his Church he frameth out of the very Flesh the very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World are the true Elements of that Heavenly Being which maketh us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Nature extract out of my own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly Being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for us and by being in us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original cause of our Nature and of that corruption of Nature which causeth death Christ as the cause original of Restauration to Life The person of Adam is not in us but his nature and the corruption of his nature derived into all men by Propagation Christ having Adams nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the sentence of Death and Condemnation which onely taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his voluntary death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot That
of words as Alchymy doth or would the substance of Mettals maketh of any thing what it listeth and bringeth in the end all Truth to nothing Or howsoever such voluntary exercise of wit might be born with otherwise yet in places which usually serve as this doth concerning Regeneration by Water and the Holy Ghost to be alledged for Grounds and Principles less is permitted To hide the general consent of Antiquity agreeing in the literal interpretation they cunningly affirm That certain have taken those words as meant of Material Water when they know that of all the Ancients there is no one to be named that ever did otherwise either expound or alledge the place then as implying External Baptism Shall that which hath always received this and no other construction be now disguised with a toy of Novelty Must we needs at the onely shew of a critical conceit without any more deliberation utterly condemn them of Error which will not admit that Fire in the words Iohn is quenched with the Name of the Holy Ghost or with the name of the Spirit Water dried up in the words of Christ When the Letter of the Law hath two things plainly and expresly specified Water and the Spirit Water as a duty required on our parts the Spirit as a Gift which God bestoweth There is danger in presuming so to interpret it at if the clause which concerneth our selves were more then needeth We may by such rate Expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty but with ill advice Finally if at the time when that Baptism which was meant by Iohn came to be really and truly performed by Christ himself we finde the Apostles that had been as we are before Baptized new Baptized with the Holy Ghost and in this their latter Baptism as well a visible descent of Fire as a secret miraculous infusion of the Spirit if on us he accomplish likewise the Heavenly work of our New birth not with the Spirit alone but with Water thereunto adjoyned sith the faithfullest Expounders of his words are his own Deeds let that which his hand hath manifestly wrought declare what his speech did doubtfully utter 60. To this they add That as we err by following a wrong construction of the place before alledged so our second over-sight is that we thereupon infer a necessity over-rigorous and extream The true necessity of Baptism a sew Propositions considered will soon decide All things which either are known Causes or set Means whereby any great Good is usually procured or Men delivered from grievous evil the same we must needs confess necessary And if Regeneration were not in this very sense a thing necessary to eternal life would Christ himself have taught Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom of God is impossible saving onely for those Men which are born from above His words following in the next Sentence are a proof sufficient that to our Regeneration his Spirit is no less necessary then Regeneration it self necessary unto Life Thirdly Unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause so Water were a necessary outward mean to our Regeneration what construction should we give unto those words wherein we are said to be new born and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even of Water Why are we taught that with Water God doth purifie and cleanse his Church Wherefore do the Apostles of Christ term Baptism a Bath of Regeneration What purpose had they in giving men advice to receive outward Baptism and in perswading them it did avail to remission of sins If outward Baptism were a cause in it self possessed of that power either Natural or Supernatural without the present operation whereof no such effect could possibly grow it must then follow That seeing effects do never prevent the necessary causes out of which they spring no man could ever receive Grace before Baptism Which being apparently both known and also confest to be otherwise in many particulars although in the rest we make not Baptism a cause of Grace yet the Grace which is given them with their Baptism doth so far forth depend on the very outward Sacrament that God will have it embraced not onely as a sign or token what we receive but also as an Instrument or Mean whereby we receive Grace because Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious Merit obtain as well that saving Grace of Imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness as also that infused Divine Vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the Powers of the Soul their first disposition towards future newness of life There are that elevate too much the ordinary and immediate means of life relying wholly upon the bare conceit of that Eternal Election which notwithstanding includeth a subordination of means without which we are not actually brought to enjoy what God secretly did intend and therefore to build upon Gods Election if we keep not our selves to the ways which he hath appointed for men to walk in is but a self-deceiving vanity When the Apostle saw men called to the participation of Jesus Christ after the Gospel of God embraced and the Sacrament of Life received he feareth not then to put them in the number of Elect Saints he then accounteth them delivered from death and clean purged from all sin Till then notwithstanding their preordination unto life which none could know of saving God what were they in the Apostles own account but Children of Wrath as well as others plain Aliens altogether without hope strangers utterly without God in this present World So that by Sacraments and other sensible tokens of Grace we may boldy gather that he whose Mercy vouchsafeth now to bestow the means hath also long sithence intended us that whereunto they lead But let us never think i◠safe to presume of our own last end by bare conjectural Collections of his first intent and purpose the means failing that should come between Predestination bringeth not to life without the Grace of External Vocation wherein our Baptism is implied For as we are not Naturally men without birth so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by New birth nor according to the manifest ordinary course of Divine Dispensation new born but by that Baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians In which respect we justly hold it to be the Door of our Actual Entrance into Gods House the first apparent beginning of Life a Seal perhaps to the Grace of Election before received but to our Sanctification here a step that hath not any before it There were of the old Valentinian Hereticks some which had Knowledge in such admiration that to it they ascribed all and so despised the Sacraments of Christ pretending That as Ignorance had
made us subject to all misery so the full Redemption of the Inward Man and the Work of our Restauration must needs belong unto Knowledge onely They draw very near unto this Error who fixing wholly their mindes on the known necessity of Faith imagine that nothing but Faith is necessary for the attainment of all Grace Yet is it a Branch of Belief that Sacraments are in their place no less required then Belief it self For when our Lord and Saviour promiseth Eternal Life is it any otherwise then as he promised Restitution of health unto Naaman the Syrian namely with this condition Wash and be clean or as to them which were stung of Serpents health by beholding the Brazen Serpent If Christ himself which giveth Salvation do require Baptism it is not for us that look for Salvation to sound and examine him whether unbaptized men may be saved but seriously to do that which is required and religiously to fear the danger which may grow by the want thereof Had Christ onely declared his Will to have all men Baptized and not acquainted us with any cause why Baptism is necessary our ignorance in the reason of that he enjoyneth might perhaps have hindered somewhat the forwardness of our obedience thereunto Whereas now being taught that Baptism is necessary to take away sin how have we the fear of God in our hearts if care of delivering Mens Souls from sin do not move us to use all means for their Baptism Pelagius which denied utterly the guilt of Original sin and in that respect the necessity of Baptism did notwithstanding both Baptize Infants and acknowledge their Baptism necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God Now the Law of Christ which in these considerations maketh Baptism necessary must be construed and understood according to Rules of Natural Equity Which Rules if they themselves did not follow in expounding the Law of God would they ever be able to prove that the Scripture in saying Whoso believeth not the Gospel of Christ is condemned already meaneth this sentence of those which can hear the Gospel and have discretion when they hear to understand it neither ought it to be applied unto Infants Deaf-men and Fools That which teacheth them thus to interpret the Law of Christ is Natural Equity And because Equity so teacheth it is on all parts gladly confest That there may be in divers cases Life by vertue of inward Baptism even where outward is not found So that if any question be made it is but about the bounds and limits of this possibility For example to think that a man whose Baptism the Crown of Martyrdom preventeth doth lose in that case the happiness which so many thousands enjoy that onely have had the Grace to Believe and not the Honor to seal the testimony thereof with Death were almost barbarous Again When some certain opinative men in St. Bernards time began privately to hold that because our Lord hath said Unless a Man be born again of Water therefore life without either Actual Baptism or Martyrdom in stead of Baptism cannot possibly be obtained at the hands of God Bernard considering that the same equity which had moved them to think the necessity of Baptism no Bar against the happy estate of Unbaptized Martyrs is as forcible for the warrant of their Salvation in whom although there be not the Sufferings of holy Martyrs there are the Vertues which sanctified those Sufferings and made them precious in Gods sight professed himself an enemy to that severity and strictness which admitteth no exception but of Martyrs onely For saith he if a Man desirous of Baptism be suddenly cut off by Death in whom there wanted neither sound Faith devout Hope not sincere Charity God be merciful unto me and pardon me if I err but verily of such a ones Salvation in whom there is no other defect besides his faultless lack of Baptism despair I cannot nor induce my minde to think his Faith void his Hope confounded and his Charity faln to nothing onely because he hath not that which not contempt but impossibility with-holdeth Tell me I beseech you saith Ambrose what there is in any of us more then to will and to seek for our own good They Servant Valentinian O Lord did both For Valentinian the Emperor died before his purpose to receive Baptism could take effect And is it possible that he which had purposely thy Spirit given him to desire Grace should not receive thy Grace which that Spirit did desire Doth it move you that the outward accustomed Solemnities were not done At though Converts that suffer Martyrdom before Baptism did thereby forfeit their right to the Crown of Eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven If the Blood of Martyrs in that case be their Baptism surely his religious desire of Baptism standeth him in the same stead It hath been therefore constantly held as well touching other Believers as Martyrs That Baptism taken away by necessity is supplied by desire of Baptism because with Equity this opinion doth best stand Touching Infants which die unbaptized sith they neither have the Sacrament it self nor any sense or conceit thereof the judgment of many hath gone hard against them But yet seeing Grace is not absolutely tied unto Sacraments and besides such is the lenity of God that unto things altogether impossible he bindeth no man but where we cannot do what is enjoyned us accepteth our will to do in stead of the deed it self Again For as much as there is in their Christian Parents and in the Church of God a presumed desire That the Sacrament of Baptism might be given them yea a purpose also that it shall be given remorse of Equity hath moved divers of the School-Divines in these considerations ingeuously to grant That God all-merciful to such as are not in themselves able to desire Baptism imputeth the secret desire that others have in their behalf and accepteth the same as theirs rather then casteth away their Souls for that which no man is able to help And of the Will of God to impart his Grace unto Infants without Baptism in that case the very circumstance of their Natural Birth may serve as a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their Salvation to whom the benefit of Christian Parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath himself no power to avoid For we are plainly taught of God That the Seed of Faithful Parentage is holy from the very Birth Which albeit we may not so understand as if the Children of Believing Parents were without Sin or Grace from Baptized Parents derived by Propagation or God by Covenant and Promise tied to save any in meer regard of their Parents Belief Yet seeing that to all Professors of the Name of Christ this pre-eminence above Infidels
the Enemies invasion doth remain but over and besides namely through Prayer and Imposition of Hands becometh yet greater yet mightier in strength so far as to raign with a kinde of Imperial Dominion over the whole Band of that roming and spoiling Adversary As much is signified by Eusebius Emissenus saying The Holy Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the Waters of Baptism doth there give that fulness which sufficeth for innocenty and afterwards exhibiteth in Confirmation an Augmentation of further Grace The Fathers therefore being thus perswaded held Confirmation as an Ordinance Apostolick always profitable in Gods Church although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those External Effects which gave it countenance at the first The cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism for most commonly they went together was sometimes in the Minister which being of inferior degree might Baptize but not Confirm as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and Iohn did confirm whereas Philip had before baptized them and in theirs of whom St. Ierome hath said I deny not but the Custom of the Churches is that the Bishop should go abroad and imposing his hands pray for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on them whom Presbyters and Deacons far off in lesser Cities have already â—aptized Which ancient Custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the example or Peter and Iohn in the Eighth of the Acts before alledged The faithful in Samaria saith he had already obtained Baptism onely that which was wanting Peter and John supplied by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to the end the Holy Ghost might be poured upon them Which also is done amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to obtain by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost By this it appeareth that when the Ministers of Baptism were persons of inferior degree the Bishops did after Confirm whom such had before Baptized Sometimes they which by force of their Ecclesiastical Calling might do as well the one as the other were notwithstanding Men whom Heresie had dis-joyned from the Fellowship of true Believers Whereupon when any Man by them Baptized and Confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce their Error there grew in some Churches very hot contention about the manner of admitting such into the Bosome of the true Church as hath been declared already in the question of Rebaptization But the generally received Custom was onely to admit them with Imposition of Hands and Prayer Of which Custom while some imagined the reason to be for that Hereticks might give Remission of Sins by Baptism but not the Spirit by Imposition of Hands because themselves had not Gods Spirit and that therefore their Baptism might stand but Confirmation must be given again The imbecillity of this ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the practice of the Church herein laboring many ways to prove That Hereticks could do neither and consequently that their Baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their Chrism for the manner of those times was in Confirming to use Anointing On the other side against Luciferians which ratified onely the Baptism of Hereticks but disannulled their Confirmations and Consecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been before specified Hereticks cannot give the Holy Ghost St. Ierome proveth at large That if Baptism by Hereticks be granted available to Remission of Sins which no man receiveth without the Spirit it must needs follow that the reason taken from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason wherefore the Church should admit Converts with any new Imposition of Hands Notwithstanding because it might be objected That if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always joyn it self with true Baptism the Church which thinketh the Bishops Confirmation after others Mens Baptism needful for the obtaining of the Holy Ghost should hold an error Saint Ierome hereunto maketh answer That the cause of this observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the Holy Ghost by the Sacrament of Baptism unless a Bishop add after it the Imposition of Hands but rather a certain congruity and fitness to honor Prelacy with such pre-eminences because the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her chief Superiors to whom if some eminent Offices of Power above others should not be given there would be in the Church as many Schisms as Priests By which answer it appeareth his opinion was That the Holy Ghost is received in Baptism that Confirmation is onely a Sacramental Complement that the reason why Bishops alone did ordinarily confirm was not because the benefit grace and dignity thereof is greater then of Baptism but rather for that by the Sacrament of Baptism Men being admitted into Gods Church it was both reasonable and convenient that if he Baptize them not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their Souls belongeth yet for honors sake and in token of his Spiritual Superiority over them because to bless is an act of Authority the performance of this annexed Ceremony should be sought for at his hands Now what effect their Imposition of Hands hath either after Baptism administred by Hereticks or otherwise St. Ierome in that place hath made no mention because all men understood that in Converts it tendeth to the fruits of Repentance and craveth in behalf of the Penitent such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of God in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which hath been before shewed Finally Sometime the cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism was in the parties that received Baptism being Infants at which age they might be very well admitted to live in the Family but because to fight in the Army of God to discharge the duties of a Christian man to bring forth the fruits and to do the Works of the Holy Ghost their time of ability was not yet come so that Baptism were not deferred there could by stay of their Confirmation no harm ensue but rather good For by this means it came to pass that Children in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of true Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their mindes a good foundation was laid betimes for direction of the course of their whole lives the Seed of the Church of God was preserved sincere and sound the Prelates and Fathers of Gods Family to whom the cure of their Souls belonged saw by tryal and examination of them a part of their own heavy burthen discharged reaped comfort by beholding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years glorified him whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every one Fatherly encouragement and exhortation Whereunto Imposition of Hands and Prayer being added our Warrant for the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarks Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and Men of God have had
Life in his Body and Blood by means of this Sacrament Wherefore should the World continue still distracted and rent with so manifold Contentions when there remaineth now no Controversie saving onely about the subject where Christ is Yea even in this point no side denieth but that the Soul of Man is the receptacle of Christs presence Whereby the question is yet driven to a narrower issue nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this Whether when the Sacrament is administred Christ be whole within Man onely or else his Body and Blood be also externally seated in the very Consecrated Elements themselves Which opinion they that defend are driven either to Consubstantiate and Incorporate Christ with Elements Sacramental or to Transubstantiate and change their substance into his and so the one to hold him really but invisibly moulded up with substance of those Elements the other to hide him under the onely visible shew of Bread and Wine the substance whereof as they imagine is abolished and his succeeded in the same room All things considered and compared with that success which Truth hath hitherto had by so bitter Conflicts with Errors in this point Shall I wish that men would more give themselves to meditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament and less to dispute of the manner how If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness let us see whether the Apostles of our Lord themselves have not done the like It appeareth by many examples that they of their own disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive yea in other cases of less importance and less difficulty always apt to move questions How cometh it to pass that so few words of so high a Mystery being uttered they receive with gladness the gift of Christ and make no shew of doubt or scruple The reason hereof is not dark to them which have any thing at all observed how the powers of the minde are wont to stir when that which we infinitely long for presenteth it self above and besides expectation Curious and intricate speculations do hinder they abate they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy as Divine Graces use to raise when extraordinarily they are present The minde therefore feeling present joy is always marvellous unwilling to admit any other cogitation and in that case casteth off those disputes whereunto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth A manifest effect whereof may be noted if we compare with our Lords Disciples in the Twentieth of Iohn the people that are said in the Sixth of Iohn to have gone after him to Capernaum These leaving him on the one side the Sea of Tiberias and finding him again as soon as themselves by ship were arrived on the contrary side whither they knew that by ship he came not and by Land the journey was longer then according to the time he could have to travel as they wondered so they asked also Rabbi when camest thou hither The Disciples when Christ appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous manner moved no question but rejoyced greatly in that they saw For why The one sort beheld onely that in Christ which they knew was more then natural but yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great extraordinary gladness the other when they looked on Christ were not ignorant that they saw the Well-spring of their own Everlasting felicity the one because they enjoyed not disputed the other disputed not because they enjoyed If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move Judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ not before their Eyes but within their Souls They had learned before That his Flesh and Blood are the true cause of Eternal Life that this they are not by the bate force of their own substance but through the dignity and worth of His Person which offered them up by way of Sacrifice for the Life of the whole World and doth make them still effectual thereunto Finally that to us they are Life in particular by being particularly received Thus much they knew although as yet they understood not perfectly to what effect or issue the same would come till at the length being assembled for no other cause which they could imagine but to have eaten the Passover onely that Moses appointed when they saw their Lord and Master with hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven first bless and consecrate for the endless good of all Generations till the Worlds end the chosen Elements of Bread and Wine which Elements made for ever the Instruments of Life by vertue of his Divine Benediction they being the first that were commanded to receive from him the first which were warranted by his promise that not onely unto them at the present time but to whomsoever they and their Successors after them did duly administer the same those Mysteries should serve as Conducts of Life and Conveyances of his Body and Blood unto them Was it possible they should hear that voice Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of this This is my Blood Possible that doing what was required and believing what was promised the same should have present effect in them and not fill them with a kinde of fearful admiration at the Heaven which they saw in themselves They had at that time a Sea of Comfort and Joy to wade in and we by that which they did are taught that this Heavenly Food is given for the satisfying of our empty Souls and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits If we doubt what those admirable words may import let him be our Teacher for the meaning of Christ to whom Christ was himself a School-master let our Lords Apostle be his Interpreter content we our selves with his Explication My Body The Communion of my Body My Blood The Communion of my Blood Is there any thing more expedite clear and easie then that as Christ is termed our Life because through him we obtain life so the parts of this Sacrament are his Body and Blood for that they are so to us who receiving them receive that by them which they are termed The Bread and Cup are his Body and Blood because they are causes instrumental upon the receit whereof the Participation of his Body and Blood ensueth For that which produceth any certain effect is not vainly nor improperly said to be that very effect whereunto it tendeth Every cause is in the effect which groweth from it Our Souls and Bodies quickned to Eternal Life are effects the cause whereof is the Person of Christ His Body and Blood are the true Well-spring out of which this Life floweth So that his Body and Blood are in that very subject whereunto they minister life Not onely by effect or operation even as the influence of the Heavens is in Plants Beasts Men and in every thing which they quicken but also by a far more Divine and
any think that Iniquity and Peace Sinne and Prosperity can dwell together they erre because they distinguish not aright between the matter and that which giveth it the form of happinesse between possession and fruition between the having and the enjoying of good things The impious cannot enjoy that they have partly because they receive it not as at God's hands which onely consideration maketh temporal blessings comfortable and partly because through errour placing it above things of farr more price and worth they turn that to Poyson which might be Food they make their prosperitie their own snare in the nest of their highest growth they lay foolishly those Egges out of which their woful over-throw is afterwards hatcht Hereby it commeth to passe that wise and judicious men observing the vain behaviour of such as are risen to unwonted greatnesse have thereby been able to prognosticate their ruine So that in very truth no impious or wicked man doth prosper on earth but either sooner or later the world may perceive easily how at such time as others thought them must fortunate they had but only the good estate which fat Oxen have above lean when they appeared to grow their climbing was towards ruine The gross and bestial conceit of them which want understanding is onely that the fullest bellies are happiest Therefore the greatest felicitie they wish to the Common-wealth wherein they live is that it may but abound and stand that they which are riotous may have to pour out without stine that the poor may â—leep and the rich feed them that nothing unpleasant may be commanded nothing forbidden men which themselves have a lust to follow that Kings may provide for the ease of their Subjects and not be too curious about their manners that wantonnesse excesse and lewdness of life may be left free and that no fault may be capital besides dislike of things settled in so good terms But be it farr from the Just to dwell either in or near to the Tents of these so miserable felicities Now whereas we thirdly affirm that Religion and the Fear of God as well induceth secular prosperitie as everlasting blisse in the world to come this also is true For otherwise godliness could not be said to have the promises of both lives to be that ample Revenue wherein there is always sufficiency and to carry with it a general discharge of want even so general that David himself should protest he never saw the Just forsaken Howbeit to this we must adde certain special limitations as first that we do not forget how crazed and diseased mindes whereof our heavenly Physician must judge receive oftentimes most benefit by being deprived of those things which are to others beneficially given as appeareth in that which the Wise-man hath noted concerning them whose lives God mercifully doth abridge lest wickedness should alter their understanding again that the measure of our outward prosperity be taken by proportion with that which every man's estate in this present life requireth External abilities are instruments of action It contenteth wise Artificers to have their Instruments proportionable to their Work rather fit for use than huge and goodly to please the eye Seeing then the actions of a Servant do not need that which may be necessary for men of Calling and Place in the World neither men of inferiour condition many things which greater Personages can hardly want surely they are blessed in worldly respects that have wherewith to perform sufficiently what their station and place asketh though they have no more For by reason of man's imbecility and proneness to elation of minde too high a flow of prosperity is dangerous too low an ebbe again as dangerous for that the vertue of patience is rare and the hand of necessity stronger than ordinary vertue is able to withstand Solomon's discreet and moderate desire we all know Give me O Lord neither riches nor penury Men over-high exalted either in honor or in power or in nobility or in wealth they likewise that are as much on the contrary hand sunk either with beggery or through dejection or by baseness do not easily give eaâ— to reason but the one exceeding apt unto outrages and the other unto petty mischiefs For greatness delighteth to shew it self by effects of power and baseness to help it self with shifts of malice For which cause a moderate indifferent temper between fulness of bread and emptiness hath been evermore thought and found all circumstances duly considered the safest and happiest for all Estates even for Kings and Princes themselves Again we are not to look that these things should always concur no not in them which are accounted happy neither that the course of men's lives or of publick affairs should continually be drawn out as an even thred for that the nature of things will not suffer but a just survey being made as those particular men are worthily reputed good whose vertues be great and their faults tolerable so him we may register for a man fortunate and that for a prosperous and happy State which having flourished doth not afterwards feel any tragical alteration such as might cause them to be a spectacle of misery to others Besides whereas true felicity consisteth in the highest operations of that nobler part or man which sheweth sometime greatest perfection not in using the benefits which delight nature but in suffering what nature can hardless indure there is no cause why either the loss of good if it tend to the purchase of better or why any misery the issue whereof is their greater praise and honor that have sustained it should be thought to impeach that temporal happiness wherewith Religion we say is accompanied but yet in such measure as the several degrees of men may require by a competent estimation and unless the contrary do more advance as it hath done those most Heroical Saints whom afflictions have made glorious In a word not to whom no calamity falleth but whom neither misery nor prosperity is able to move from a right minde them we may truly pronounce fortunate and whatsoever doth outwardly happen without that precedent improbity for which it appeareth in the eyes of sound and unpartial Judges to have proceeded from Divine revenge it passeth in the number of humane casualties whereunto we are all alike subject No misery is reckoned more than common or humane if God so dispose that we pass thorow it and come safe so shore even as contrariwise men do not use to think those flourishing days happy which do end with tears It standeth therefore with these cautions firm and true yea ratified by all mens unfeigned confessions drawn from the very heart of experience that whether we compare men of note in the world with others of like degree and state or else the same men with themselves whether we conferr one Dominion with another or else the different times of one and the same Dominion the manifest odds between their very outward
condition as long as they stedfastly were observed to honour God and their success being faln from him are remonstrances more than sufficient how all our welfare even on earth dependeth wholly upon our Religion Heathens were ignorant of true Religion Yet such as that little was which they knew it much impaired or bettered alwaies their worldy affairs as their love and zeal towards it did wain or grow Of the Jews did not even their most malicious and mortal Adversaries all acknowledge that to strive against them it was in vain as long as their amity with God continued that nothing could weaken them but Apostasie In the whole course of their own proceedings did they ever finde it otherwise but that during their faith and fidelity towards God every man of them was in war as a thousand strong and as much as a grand Senate for counsel in peaceable deliberations contrariwise that if they swarved as they often did their wonted courage and magnanimity forsook them utterly their Soldiers and military men trembled at the sight of the naked sword when they entered into mutual conference and sate in counsel for their own good that which Children might have seen their gravest Senators could not discern their Prophets saw darkness instead of Visions the wise and prudent were as men bewitcht even that which they knew being such as might stand them in stead they had not the grace to utter or if any thing were well proposed it took no place it entered not into the minds of the rest to approve and follow it but as men confounded with strange and unusual amaâ—â—ments of spirit they attempted tumultuously they saw not what and by the issues of all attempts they found no certain conclusion but this God and Heaven are strong against as in all we do The cause whereof was secret fear which took heart and courage from them and the cause of their fear an inward guiltiness that they all had offered God such apparent wrongs as were not pardonable But it may be the case is now altogether changed and that in Christian Religion there is not the like force towards Temporal felicity Search the ancient Records of time look what hath happened by the space of these sixteen hundred years see if all things to this effect be not Inculent and clear yea all things so manifest that for evidence and proof herein we need not by uncertain dark conjectures surmise any to have been plagued of God for contempt or blest in the course of faithful obedience towards true Religion more than onely them whom we finde in that respect on the one side guilty by their own confessions and happy on the other side by all mens acknowledgement who beholding that prosperous estate of such as are good and vertuous impute boldly the same to God's most especial favour but cannot in like manner pronounce that whom he afflicteth above others with them he hath cause to be more offended For Vertue is always plain to be seen rareness causeth it to be observed and goodness to be honoured with admiration As for iniquity and sin it lyeth many times hid and because we be all offenders it becometh us not to incline towards hard and severe sentences touching others unless their notorious wickedness did sensibly before proclaim that which afterwards came to pass Wherefore the sum of every Christian man's duty is to labour by all means towards that which other men seeing in us may justifie and what we our selves must accuse if we fall into it that by all means we can to avoid considering especially that as hitherto upon the Church there never yet fell tempestuous storm the vapours whereof were not first noted to rise from coldness in affection and from backwardness is duties of service towards God so if that which the tears of antiquity have untered concerning this point should be here set down it were assuredly enough to soften and to mollifie an Heart of steel On the contrary part although we confesse with Saint Augustine most willingly that the chiefest happiness for which we have some Christian Kings in so great admiration above the rest is not because of their long Reign their calm and quiet departure out of this present life the settled establishment of their own flesh and blood succeeding them in Royalty and Power the glorious overthrow of foreign enemies or the wise prevention of inward danger and so secret attempts at home all which solaces and comforts of this our unquiet life it pleaseth God oftentimes to bestow on them which have no society or part in the joys of Heaven giving thereby to understand that these in comparison are toys and trifles farr under the value and price of that which is to be looked for at his hands but in truth the reason wherefore we most extol their felicity is if so be they have virtuously reigned if honour have not filled their hearts with pride if the exercise of their power have been service and attendance upon the Majestie of the Most High if they have feared him as their own inferiours and subjects have feared them if they have loved neither pomp nor pleasure more than Heaven if revenge have slowly proceeded from then and mercy willingly offered it self if so they have tempered rigour with lenity that neither extream severitie might utterly cutt them off in whom there was manifest hope of amendment nor yet the easinesse of pardoning offences imbolden offenders if knowing that whatsoever they do their potency may bear it out they have been so much the more carefull are to do any thing but that which is commendable in the best rather than usual with greatest Personages if the true knowledge of themselves have humbled them in God's sight no lesse than God in the eyes of men hath raised them up I say albeit we reckon such to be the happiest of them that are mightiest in the World and albeit those things alone are happiness nevertheless considering what force there is even in outward blessings to comfort the mindes of the best disposed and to give them the greater joy when Religion and Peace Heavenly and Earthly happiness are wreathed in one Crown as to the worthiest of Christian Princes it hath by the providence of the Almighty hitherto befallen let it not seem unto any man a needlesse and superfluous waste of labour that there hath been thus much spoken to declare how in them especially it hath been so observed and withal universally noted even from the highest to the very meanest how this peculiar benefit this singular grace and preheminence Religion hath that either it guardeth as an heavenly shield from all calamities or else conducteth us safe through them and permitteth them not to be miseâ—… it either giveth honours promotions and wealth or else more benefit by wanting them than if we had them at will it either filleth our Houses with plenty of all good things or maketh a Sallad of green herbs more sweet than all the
licence and authorize the same which the Law against ignorance non-residence and plurality doth infringe and so be a Law contrariant or repugnant to the Law of Nature and the Law of God because all the reasons whereupon the Positive Law of man against these three was first established are taken and drawn from the Law of Nature and the Law of God For answer whereunto we will but lead them to answer themselves First therefore if they will grant as they must that all direct oppositions of speech require one and the self-same subject to be meant on both parts where opposition is pretended it will follow that either the Maxims of Common right do inforce the very same things not to be good which we say are good grounding our selves on the reasons by vertue whereof our priviledges are established or if the one doe not reach unto that particular subject for which the other have provided then is there no contradiction between them In all contradictions if the one part be true the other eternally must be false And therefore if the Principles of Common right do at any time truly inforce that particular not to be good which Priviledges make good it argueth invincibly that such priviledges have been grounded upon errour But to say that every Priviledge is opposite unto the Principles of Common right because it dispenseth with that which Common right doth prohibite hath gross absurdity For the voyce of Equity and Justice is that a general Law doth never derogate from a special Priviledge whereas if the one were contrariant to the other a general Law being in force should alwayes dissolve a Priviledge The reason why many are deceived by imagining that so it should doe and why men of better insight conclude directly it should not doth rest in the subject or matter it self which matter indefinitely considered in Laws of Common right is in Priviledges considered as beset and limited with special circumstances by means whereof to them which respect it but by way of generality it seemeth one and the same in both although it be not the same if once we descend to particular consideration thereof Precepts do alwayes propose perfection not such as none can attain unto for then in vain should we ask or require it at the hands of men but such perfection as all men must aim at to the end that as largely as human providence and care can extend it it may take place Moral laws are the rules of Politick those Politick which are made to order the whole Church of God rules unto all particular Churches and the Laws of every particular Church Rules unto every particular man within the body of the same Church Now because the higher we ascend in these Rules the further still we remove from those specialities which being proper to the subject whereupon our actions must work are therefore chiefly considered by us by them least thought upon that wade altogether in the two first kindes of general directions their judgment cannot be exact and sound concerning either laws of Churches or actions of men in particular because they determine of effects by a part of the causes onely out of which they grow they judge conclusions by demipremises and half-principles they lay them in the balance stript from those necessary material circumstances which should give them weight and by shew of falling uneven with the scale of most universal and abstracted rules they pronounce that too light which is not if they had the skill to weigh it This is the reason why men altogether conversant in study do know how to teach but not how to govern men experienced contrariwise govern well yet know not which way to set down orderly the precepts and reasons of that they do He that will therefore judge rightly of things done must joyn with his forms and conceits of general speculation the matter wherein our actions are conversant For by this shall appear what equity there is in those Priviledges and peculiar grants or favours which otherwise will seem repugnant to justice and because in themselves considered they have a shew of repugnancy this deceiveth those great Clerks which hearing a Priviledge defined to be an especial right brought in by their power and authority that make it for some publick benefit against the general course of reason are not able to comprehend how the word against doth import exception without any opposition at all For inasmuch as the hand of Justice must distribute to every particular what is due and judge what is due with respect had no less of particular circumstances than of general rules and axioms it cannot fit all sorts with one measure the wills counsels qualities and states of men being divers For example the Law of Common right bindeth all men to keep their Promises perform their Compacts and answer the Faith they have given either for themselves or others Notwithstanding he which bargaineth with one under years can have no benefit by this allegation because he bringeth it against a Person which is exempt from the Common rule Shall we then conclude that thus to exempt certain men from the Law of Common right is against God against Nature against whatsoever may avail to strengthen and justifie that Law before alledged or else acknowledge as the truth is that special causes are to be ordered by special rules that is men grown unto ripe age disadvantage themselves by bargaining yet what they have wittingly done is strong and in force against them because they are able to dispose and manage their own affairs whereas youth for lack of experience and judgement being easily subject to circumvention is therefore justly exempt from the Law of Common-right whereunto the rest are justly subject This plain inequality between men of years and under years is a cause why Equity and Justice cannot apply equally the same general rule to both but ordereth the one by Common right and granteth to the other a special priviledge Priviledges are either transitory or permanent Transitory such as serve onely some one turn or at the most extend no farther than to this or that man with the end of whose natural life they expâ—e Permanent such as the use whereof doth continue still for that they belong unto certain kindes of men and causes which never dye Of this nature are all immunities and preheminencies which for just considerations one sort of men enjoyeth above another both in the Church and Common-wealth no man suspecting them of contrariety to any branch of those Laws or Reasons whereupon the general right is grounded Now there being general Laws and Rules whereby it cannot be denied but the Church of God standeth bound to provide that the Ministry may be learned that they which have charge may reside upon it and that it may not be free for them in scandalous manner to multiply Ecclesiastical Livings it remaineth in the next place to be examined what the Laws of the Church of England
why in all the projects of their Discipline it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the Key of Spiritual Authority out of the hands of former Governours and equally to possess therewith the Pastors of all several Congregations the people first for surer accomplishment and then for better defence thereof are pretended necessary Actors in those things whereunto their ability for the most part is as slender as their title and challenge unjust Notwithstanding whether they saw it necessary for them to perswade the people without whose help they could do nothing or else which I rather think the affection which they bear towards this new Form of Government made them to imagin it Gods own Ordinance Their Doctrine is that by the Law of God there must be for ever in all Congregations certain Lay-Elders Ministers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in as much as our Lord and Saviour by Testament for so they presume hath left all Ministers or Pastors in the Church Executors equally to the whole power of Spiritual Jurisdiction and with them hath joyned the people as Colleagues By maintenance of which Assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it as a matter of their own interest and for that if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them the colour of Divine Authority assumed for the Grace and Countenance of that Power in the vulgar sort furnisheth their Leaders with great abundance of matter behoveful of their encouragement to proceed alwaies with hope of fortunate success in the end considering their cause to be as David's was a just defence of power given them from above and consequently their Adversaries quarrel the same with Saul's by whom the Ordinance of God was withstood Now on the contrary side if this their surmise prove false if such as in Justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alledged as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial let them then consider whether those words of Corah Dathan and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron It is too much that ye take upon you seeing all the Congregation is holy be not the very true Abstract and abridgment of all their published Admonitions Demonstrations Supplications and Treatises whatsoever whereby they have laboured to void the rooms of their Spiritual Superiours before Authorized and to advance the new fancied Scepter of Lay Presbyterial Power The Nature of Spiritual Iurisdiction BUt before there can be any setled Determination whether Truth do rest on their part or on ours touching Lay-Elders we are to prepare the way thereunto by explication of some things requisite and very needful to be considered as first how besides that Spiritual Power which is of Order and was instituted for performance of those duties whereof there hath been Speech already had there is in the Church no less necessary a second kind which we call the Power of Jurisdiction When the Apostle doth speak of ruling the Church of God and of receiving accusations his words have evident reference to the Power of Jurisdiction Our Saviours words to the Power of Order when he giveth his Disciples charge saying Preach Baptize Do this in Remembrance of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn A Bishop saith Ignatius doth bear the Image of God and of Christ of God in ruling of Christ in administring holy things By this therefore we see a manifest difference acknowledged between the Power of Ecclesiastical Order and the power of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical The Spiritual Power of the Church being such as neither can be challenged by right of Nature nor could by humane Authority be instituted because the forces and effects thereof are Supernatural and Divine we are to make no doubt or question but that from him which is the Head it hath descended unto us that are the Body now invested therewith He gave it for the benefit and good of Souls as a mean to keep them in the path which leadeth unto endless felicity a bridle to hold them within their due and convenient bounds and if they do go astray a forcible help to reclaim them Now although there be no kind of Spiritual Power for which our Lord Iesus Christ did not give both commission to exercise and direction how to use the same although his Laws in that behalf recorded by the holy Evangelists be the only ground and foundation whereupon the practice of the Church must sustain it self yet as all multitudes once grown to the form of Societies are even thereby naturally warranted to enforce upon their own subjects particularly those things which publick wisdom shall judge expedient for the common good so it were absurd to imagine the Church it self the most glorious amongst them abridged of this liberty or to think that no Law Constitution or Canon can be further made either for Limitation or Amplification in the practice of our Saviours Ordinances whatsoever occasion be offered through variety of times and things during the state of this inconstant world which bringeth forth daily such new evills as must of necessity by new remedies be redrest did both of old enforce our venerable Predecessor and will alwaies constrain others sometime to make sometime to abrogate sometime to augment and again to abridge sometime in sum often to vary alter and change Customs incident unto the manner of exercising that Power which doth it self continue alwaies one and the same I therefore conclude that Spiritual Authority is a Power which Christ hath given to be used over them which are subject unto it for the eternal good of their Souls according to his own most Sacred Laws and the wholsome positive Constitutions of his Church In Doctrine referred unto Action and Practice as this is which concerns Spiritual Jurisdiction the first sound and perfect understanding is the knowledge of the End because thereby both Use doth frame and Contemplation judge all things Of Penitency the chiefest End propounded by Spiritual Iurisdiction Two kinds of Penitency the one a Private Duty toward God the other a Duty of external Discipline Of the vertue of Repentance from which the former Duty proceedeth and of Contrition the first part of that Duty SEeing that the chiefest cause of Spiritual Jurisdiction is to provide for the health and safety of Mens Souls by bringing them to see and Repent their grievous offences committed against God as also to reform all injuries offered with the breach of Christian Love and Charity toward their brethren in matters of Ecclesiastical Cognizance the use of this Power shall by so much the plainlier appear if first the nature of Repentance it self be known We are by Repentance to appease whom we offend by Sin For which cause whereas all Sin deprives us of the favour of Almighty God our way of Reconciliation with him is the inward secret Repentance of the heart which inward
the Children of disobedience On the other to lovers of righteousness all grace and benediction Yet between these extreams that eternal God from whose unspotted justice and undeserved mercy the lot of each inheritance proceedeth is so inclinable rather to shew compassion then to take revenge that all his speeches in holy Scripture are almost nothing else but entreaties of men to prevent destruction by amendment of their wicked lives All the works of his providence little other then meer allurements of the just to continue stedfast and of the unrighteous to change their course All his dealings and proceedings towards true Converts as have even filled the grave writings of holy men with these and the like most sweet sentences Repentance if I may so speak stoppeth God in his way when being provoked by crimes past he cometh to revenge them with most just punishments Yea it tyeth as it were the hands of the Avenger and doth not suffer him to have his will Again The merciful eye of God towards Men hath no power to withstand Penitency at what time soever it comes in presence And again God doth not take it so in evil part though we wound that which he hath required us to keep whole as that after we have taken hurt there should be in us no desire to receive his help Finally lest I be carried too far in so large a Sea There was never any Man condemned of God but for neglect nor justified except he had care of Repentance From these considerations setting before our eyes our inexcusable both unthankfulness in disobeying so merciful foolishness in provoking so powerful a God there ariseth necessarily a pensive and corrosive desire that we had done otherwise a desire which suffereth us to foreslow no time to feel no quietness within our selves to take neither sleep nor food with contentment never to give over Supplications Confessions and other penitent Duties till the light of Gods reconciled favour shine in our darkned soul. Fulgentius asking the question Why Davids confession should be held for effectual Penitence and not Saul's answereth that the one hated Sin the other feared only punishment in this world Sauls acknowledgement of Sin was Fear David's both fear and also love This was the Fountain of Peters Tears this the Life and Spirit of Davids eloquence in those most admirable Hymns intituled Penitential where the words of sorrow for Sin do melt the very Bowels of God remitting it and the Comforts of Grace in remitting Sin carry him which sorrowed rapt as it were into Heaven with extasies of joy and gladness The first motive of the Ninevites unto Repentance was their belief in a Sermon of Fear but the next and most immediate an Axiom of Love Who can tell whether God will turn away his fierce wrath that we perish notâ— No conclusion such as theirs Let every man turn from his evil way but out of premisses such as theirs were Fear and Love Wherefore the Well-spring of Repentance is Faith first breeding Fear and then Love which Love causes hope hope resolution of Attempt I will go to my Father and say I have sinned against Heaven and against thee that is to say I will do what the Duty of a Convert requireth Now in a Penitent's or Convert's duty there are included first the aversion of the will from Sin secondly the submission of our selves to God by supplication and Prayer thirdly the purpose of a new life testified with present works of amendment Which three things do very well seem to be comprised in one definition by them which handle Repentance as a vertue that hateth bewaileth and sheweth a purpose to amend Sin We offend God in thought word and deed To the first of which three they make Contrition to the second Confession and to the last our works of Satisfaction answerable Contrition doth not here import those sudden Pangs and Convulsions of the mind which cause sometimes the most forsaken of God to retract their own doings it is no Natural passion or anguish which riseth in us against our wills but a deliberate aversion of the Will of Man from Sin which being alwaies accompanied with grief and grief oftentimes partly with tears partly with other external signs it hath been thought that in these things Contrition doth chiefly consist whereas the chiefest thing in Contrition is that alteration whereby the Will which was before delighted with Sin doth now abhorr and shun nothing more But forasmuch as we cannot hate Sin in our selves without heaviness and grief that there should be in us a thing of such hatefull quality the Will averted from Sin must needs make the affection suitable yea great reason why it should so do For since the Will by conceiving Sin hath deprived the Soul of Life and of life there is not recovery without Repentance the death of Sin Repentance not able to kill Sin but by withdrawing the Will from it the Will unpossible to be withdrawn unless it concur with a contrary affection to that which accompanied it before in evill Is it not clear that as an inordinate delight did first begin sin so Repentance must begin with a just sorrow a sorrow of heart and such a sorrow as renteth the heart neither a feigned nor sleight sorrow not feigned blest it increase Sin nor sleight lest the pleasures of Sin over-match itâ—â—â—ef Wher ore of Grace the highest cause from which Mans Penitency doth proceed of Faith Fear Love Hope what force and efficiency they have in Repentance of Parts and Duties thereunto belonging comprehended in the Schoolmens definitions finally of the first among those Duties Contrition which disliketh and bewaileth iniquity let this suffice And because God will have Offences by Repentance not only abhorred within our selves but also with humble Supplication displayed before Him and a testimony of amendment to be given even by present works worthy Repentance in that they are contrary to those we renounce and disclaim Although the vertue of Repentance do require that her other two parts Consession and Satisfaction should here follow yet seeing they belong as well to the Discipline as to the vertue of Repentance and only differ for that in the one they are performed to Man in the other to God alone I had rather distinguish them in joynt-handling then handle them apart because in quality and manner of practise they are distinct Of the Discipline of Repentance instituted by Christ practised by the Fathers converted by the School-men into a Sacrament and of Confession that which belongeth to the vertue of Repentance that which was used among the Iews that which the Papacy imagineth a Sacrament and that which Antient Discipline practised 1. OUr Lord and Saviour in the sixteenth of St. Matthews Gospel giveth his Apostles Regiment in General over Gods Church For they that have the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are thereby signified to be Stewards of the House of God under whom they Guide Command Judge and
Correct his Family The Souls of Men are Gods Treasure committed to the Trust and Fidelity of such as must render a strict account for the very least which is under their Custody God hath not invested them with Power to make a Revenue thereof but to use it for the good of them whom Jesus Christ hath most dearly bought And because their Office therein consisteth of sundry functions some belonging to Doctrine some to Discipline all contained in the Name of the Keys they have for matters of Discipline as well Litigious as Criminal their Courts and Consistories erected by the heavenly Authority of his most Sacred Voice who hath said Dic Ecclesia Tell the Church against rebellious and conâ—umacious Persons which refuse to obey their Sentence armed they are with Power to eject such out of the Church to deprive them of the Honours Rights and Priviledges of Christian Men to make them as Heathens and Publicans with whom society was hateful Furthermore lest their Acts should be slenderly accounted of or had in contempt whether they admit to the Fellowship of Saints or seclude from it whether they bind Offenders or set them again at liberty whether they remit or retain Sins whatsoever is done by way of orderly and lawfull proceeding the Lord himself hath promised to ratifie This is that grand Original Warrant by force whereof the Guides and Prelates in Gods Church first his Apostles and afterwards others following them successively did both use and uphold that Discipline the end whereof is to heal Mens Consciences to cure their Sins to reclaim Offenders from iniquity and to make them by Repentance just Neither hath it of Ancient time for any other respect been accustomed to bind by Ecclesiastical Censures to retain so bound till tokens of manifest Repentance appeared and upon apparent Repentance to Release saving only because this was received as a most expedient method for the cure of sin The course of Discipline in former Ages reformed open Transgressors by putting them into Offices of open Penitence especially Confession whereby they declared their own crimes in the hearing of the whole Church and were not from the time of their first Convention capable of the holy Mysteries of Christ till they had solemnly discharged this duty Offenders in secret knowing themselves altogether as unworthy to be admitted to the Lords Table as the other which were with-held being also perswaded that if the Church did direct them in the Offices of their Penitency and assist them with publique Prayer they should more easily obtain that they sought than by trusting wholly to their own endeavours finally having no impediment to stay them from it but bashfulness which countervailed not the former inducements and besides was greatly cased by the good construction which the charity of those times gave to such actions wherein Mens piety and voluntary care to be reconciled to God did purchase them much more love than their faults the testimonies of common frailty were able to procure disgrace they made it not nice to use some one of the Ministers of God by whom the rest might take notice of their faults prescribe them convenient remedies and in the end after publick Confession all joyn in Prayer unto God for them The first beginner of this Custom had the more followers by means of that special favour which alwaies was with good consideration shewed towards voluntary Penitents above the rest But as Professors of Christian belief grew more in number so they waxed worse when Kings and Princes had submitted their Dominions unto the Scepter of Jesus Christ by means whereof Persecution ceasing the Church immediately became subject to those evills which peace and security bringeth forth there was not now that love which before kept all things in tune but every where Schisms Discords Dissentions amongst Men. Conventicles of Hereticks bent more vehemently against the sounder and better sort than very Infidels and Heathens themselves faults not corrected in Charity but noted with delight and kept for malice to use when the deadliest opportunities should be offered Whereupon forasmuch as publick Confessions became dangerous and prejudicial to the safety of well-minded Men and in divers respects advantagious to the Enemies of Gods Church it seemed first unto some and afterwards generally requisite that voluntary Penitents should surcease from open Confession Instead whereof when once private and secret Confession had taken place with the Latins It continued as a profitable Ordinance till the Lateran Council had Decreed that all Men once in a year at the least should confess themselves to the Priest So that being a thing thus made both general and also necessary the next degree of estimation whereunto it grew was to be honoured and and lifted up to the Nature of a Sacramentâ— that as Christ did institute Baptism to give life and the Eucharist to nourish life so Penitence might be thought a Sacrament ordained to recover life and Confession a part of the Sacrament They define therefore their private Penetency to be a Sacrament of remitting sins after Baptism The vertue of Repentance a detestation of wickedness with ful purpose to amend the same and with hope to obtain pardon at Gods hands Wheresoever the Prophets cry Repent and in the Gospel Saint Peter maketh the same Exhortation to the Jews as yet unbaptized they would have the vertue of Repentance only to be understood The Sacrament where he adviseth Simon Magus to repent because the Sin of Simon Magus was after Baptism Now although they have onely external Repentance for a Sacrament internal for a Vertue yet make they Sacramental Repentance nevertheless to be composed of three parts Contrition Confession and Satisfaction which is absurd because Contrition being an inward thing belongeth to the Vertue and not to the Sacrament of Repentance which must consist of external parts if the nature thereof be external Besides which is more absurd they leave out Absolution whereas some of their School Divines handling Penance in the nature of a Sacrament and being not able to espie the least resemblance of a Sacrament save only in Absolution for a Sacrament by their doctrine must both signifie and also confer or bestow some special Divine Grace resolved themselves that the duties of the Penitent could be but meer preparations to the Sacrament and that the Sacrament it self was wholly in Absolution And albeit Thomas with his Followers have thought it safer to maintain as well the services of the Penitent as the words of the Minister necessary unto the essence of their Sacrament the services of the Penitent as a cause material the words of Absolution as a formal for that by them all things else are perfected to the taking away of Sin which opinion now reigneth in all their Schools since the time that the Councel of Trent gave it solemn approbation seeing they all make Absolution if not the whole essence yet the very form whereunto they ascribe chiefly the whole force
of them who in time of persecution had through fear betrayed their faith and notwithstanding thought by shift to avoid in that case the necessary Discipline of the Church wrote for their better instruction the book intituled De lapsis a Treatise concerning such as had openly forsaken their Religion and yet were loth openly to confess their fault in such manner as they should have done In which book he compareth with this sort of men certain others which had but a purpose only to have departed from the Faith and yet could not quiet their minds till this very secret and hidden fault was confest How much both greater in faith saith St. Cyprian and also as touching their fear better are those men who although neither sacrifice nor libel could be objected against them yet because they thought to have done that which they should not even this their intent they dolefully open unto Gods Priests They confess that whereof their conscience accuseth them the burthen that presseth their minds they discover they foreslow not of smaller and slighter evils to seek remedy He saith they declared their fault not to one only man in private but revealed it to Gods Priests they confest it before the whole Consistory of Gods Ministers Salvianus for I willingly embrace their conjecture who ascribe those Homilies to him which have hitherto by common error past under the counterfeit name of Eusebius Emesenus I say Salvianus though coming long after Cyprian in time giveth nevertheless the same evidence for his truth in a case very little different from that before alleadged his words are these Whereas most dearly beloved we see that pennance oftentimes is sought and sued for by holy souls which even from their youth have bequeathed themselves a precious treasure unto God let us know that the inspiration of Gods good Spirit moveth them so to do for the benefit of his Church and let such as are wounded learn to enquire for that remedy whereunto the very soundest do thus offer and obtrude as it were themselves that if the vertuous do bewailâ— small offences the others cease not to lament great And surely when a man that hath less need performeth sub oculis Ecclesiae in the view sight and beholding of the whole Church an office worthy of his faith and compunction for Sin the good which others thereby reap is his own harvest the heap of his rewards groweth by that which another gaineth and through a kind of spiritual usury from that amendment of life which others learn by him there returneth lucre into his cossers The same Salvianus in another of his Homilies If faults haply be not great and grievous for example if a man have offended in word or in desire worthy of reproof if in the wantonness of his eye or the vanity of his heart the stains of words and thoughts are by daily prayer to be cleansed and by private compunction to be scoured out But if any man examining inwardly his own Conscience have committed some high and capital offence as if by hearing false witness he have quelled and betrayed his faith and by rashness of perjury have violated the sacred name of Truth if with the mire of lustful uncleanness he have sullied the veil of Baptism and the gorgeous robe of Virginity if by being the cause of any mans death he have been the death of the new man within himself if by conference with Southsayers Wizards and Charmers he hath enthralled himself to Satan These and such like committed crimes cannot throughly be taken away with ordinary moderate and secret satisfaction but greater causes do require greater and sharper remedies they need such remedies as are not only sharp but solemn open and publick Again Let that soul saith he answer me which through pernicious shame fastness it now so abasht to acknowledge his Sin in conspectu fratrum before his brethren as he should have been abasht to commit the same What will be do in the presence of that Divine Tribunal where he is to stand arraigned in the Assembly of a glorious and celestial host I will hereunto adde but St. Ambrose's testimony For the places which I might alledge are more then the cause it self needeth There are many saith he who fearing the judgement that is to come and feeling inward remorse of conscience when they have offered themselves unto penitency and are enjoyned what they shall do give back for the only skar which they think that publick supplication will put them unto He speaketh of them which sought voluntarily to be penanced and yet withdrew themselves from open confession which they that were penitents for publick crimes could not possibly have done and therefore it cannot be said he meaneth any other then secret Sinners in that place Gennadius a Presbyter of Marsiles in his book touching Ecclesiastical assertions maketh but two kinds of confession necessary the one in private to God alone for smaller offences the other open when crimes committed are hainous and great Although saith he a man be bitten with conscience of Sin let his will be from thenceforward to Sin no more let him before he communicate satisfie with tears and prayers and then putting his trust in the mercy of Almighty God whose want is to yield godly confession let him boldly receive the Sacrament But I speak this of such as have not burthened themselves with capital Sins Them I exhort to satisfie first by publick penance that so being reconciled by the sentence of the Priest they may communicate safely with others Thus still we hear of publick confessions although the crimes themselves discovered were not publick we hear that the cause of such confessions was not the openness but the greatness of mens offences finally we hear that the same being now held by the Church of Rome to be Sacramental were the onely penitential Confessions used in the Church for a long time and esteemed as necessary remedies against Sin They which will find Auricular Confessions in St. Cyprian therefore must seek out some other passage then that which Bellarmine alledgeth Whereas in smaller faults which are not committed against the Lord himself there is a competent time assigned unto Penitency and that confession is made after that observation and tryal had been bad of the Penitents behaviour neither may any communicate till the Bishop and Clergy have laid their hands upon him how much more ought all things to be warily and stayedly observed according to the Discipline of the Lord in these most grievous and extream crimes S. Cyprians speech is against rashness in admitting Idolaters to the holy Communion before they had shewed sufficient Repentance considering that other offenders were forced to stay out their time and that they made not their publick confession which was the last act of Penitency till their Life and Conversation had been seen into not with the eye of Auricular Scrutiny but of Pastoral Observation according to that in the
Satisfaction Penitency thrown out of men's hearts the remembrance of that heaviest and last Judgement clean banish'd the wounds of dying men which should be healed are covered the stroke of death which hath gone as deep as any bowels are to receive it is over-cast with the sleight shew of a cloudy look From the Altar of Satan to the holy Table of the Lord men are not afraid to come even belching in a manner the sacrificed morsels they have eaten yea their jaws yet breathing out the irksome savour of their former contagious wickedness they seize upon the blessed body of our Lord nothing terrified with that dreadful commination which saith Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of Christ. They vainly think it to be peace which is gotten before they be purged of their faults before their crime be solemnly confest before their Conscience be cleared by the sacrifice and imposition of the Priest's hands and before they have pacified the indignation of God Why term they that a Favour which is an Injury Wherefore cloak they Impiety with the name of charitable Indulgence Such facility giveth not but rather taketh away peace and is it self another fresh Persecution or tryal whereby that fraudulent Enemy maketh a secret havock of such as before he had overthrown and now to the end that he may clean swallow them he casteth Sorrow into a dead sleep putteth Grief to silence wipeth away the memory of Faults newly done smothereth the sighs that should rise from a contrite Spirit dryeth up Eyes which ought to send forth rivers of Tears and permitteth not God to be pacified withfull repentance whom haynous and enormous crimes have displeased By this then we see that in Saint Cyprian's judgement all Absolutions are void frustrate and of no effect without sufficient Repentance first shewed Whereas contrariwise if true and full Satisfaction have gone before the sentence of man here given is ratified of God in Heaven according to our Saviours own sacred Testimony Whose sins ye remit they are remitted By what works in the Vertue and by what in the Discipline of Repentance we are said to satisfie either God or men cannot now be thought obscure As for the Inventors of Sacramental Satisfaction they have both altered the natural order heretofore kept in the Church by bringing in a strange preposterous course to absolve before Satisfaction be made and moreover by this their misordered practise are grown into sundry errours concerning the end whereunto it is referred They imagine beyond all conceit of Antiquity that when God doth remit Sin and the punishment eternal thereunto belonging he reserveth the torments of hell-fire to be nevertheless endured for a time either shorter or longer according to the quality of men's Crimes Yet so that there is between God and man a certain Composition as it were or Contract by vertue whereof works assigned by the Priest to be done after Absolution shall satisfie God as touching the punishment which he otherwise would inflict for sin pardoned and forgiven Now because they cannot assure any man that if he performeth what the Priest appointeth it shall suffice This I say because they cannot do in as much as the Priest hath no power to determine or define of equivalency between Sins and Satisfactions And yet if a Penitent depart this life the debt of Satisfaction being either in whole or in part un-discharged they stedfastly hold that the Soul must remain in unspeakable torment till all be paid Therefore for help and mittigation in this Case they advise men to set certain Copes-mates on work whose Prayers and Sacrifices may satisfie God for such Souls as depart in debt Hence have arisen the infinite Pensions of their Priests the building of so many Altars and Tombs the enriching of so many Churches with so many glorious costly Gifts the bequeathing of Lands and ample Possessions to Religious Companies even with utter forgetfulness of Friends Parents Wife and Children all natural affection giving place unto that desire which men doubtful of their own estate have to deliver their Soals from torment after death Yet behold even this being done how farr forth it shall avail they are not sure And therefore the last upshot unto all their former Inventions is that as every action of Christ did both ment for himself and satisfie partly for the eternal and partly for the temporal punishment due unto men for sin So his Saints have obtained the like priviledge of Grace making every good work they do not only meritorious in their own behalf but satisfactory too for the benefit of others Or if having at any time grievously sinned they do more to satisfie God then he in justice can exact of look for at their hands the surplusage runneth to a common stock out of which treasury containing whatsoever Christ did by way of Satisfaction for temporal punishment together with the satisfactory force which resideth in all the vertuous works of Saints and in their Satisfactions whatsoever doth abound I say From hence they hold God satisfied for such arrerages as men behinde in accompt discharge not by other means and for disposition hereof as it is their Doctrine that Christ remitteth not eternal death without the Priests Absolution so without the grant of the Pope they cannot but teach it a like unpossible that Souls in Hell should receive any temporal release of pain The Sacrament of Pardon from him being to this effect no lesse necessary than the Priests Absolution to the other So that by this Postem-gate commeth in the whole mark of Papal Indulgences a Gain unestimable to him to others a Spoyl a scorn both to God and Man So many works of satisfaction pretended to be done by Christ by Saints and Martyrs so many vertuous acts possessed with satisfactory force and vertue so many supererogations in satisfying beyond the exigence of their own necessity And this that the Pope might make a Monopoly of all turning all to his own gain or at least to the gain of those which are his own Such facilitle they have to convert a pretended Sacrament into a Revenue Of Absolution of Penitents SIn is not helped but by being assecured of Pardon It resteth therefore to be considered what warrant we have concerning Forgivenesse when the Sentence of man absolveth us from Sinne committed against God At the words of our Saviour saying to the sick of the Palsey Son thy Sins are forgiven-thee Exception was taken by the Scribes who secretly reasoned against him Is any able to forgive Sins but only God Whereupon they condemned his speech as blasphemy the rest which believed him to be a Prophet sent from God saw no cause wherefore he might not as lawfully say and as truly to whomsoever amongst them God hath taken away thy Sins as Nathan they all knew had used the very like speech to whom David did not therefore impute blasphemy but imbraced as became him the words of truth
Stupidity the highest top of Wisdom and Commiseration the deadlyest sin became by Institution and Study the very same which the other had been before through a secret natural Distemper upon his Conversion to the Christian Faith and recovery from Sickness which moved him to receive the Sacrament of Baptisme in his Bed The Bishops contrary to the Canons of the Church would needs in special love towards him ordain him Presbyter which favour satisfied not him who thought himself worthy of greater Place and Dignity He closed therefore with a number of well-minded men and not suspicious what his secret purposes were and having made them sure unto him by fraud procureth his own Consecration to be their Bishop His Prelacy now was able as he thought to countenance what he intended to publish and therefore his Letters went presently abroad to sundry Churches advising them never to admit to the Fellowship of Holy Mysteryes such as had after Baptisme offered Sacrifice to Idols There was present at the Council of Nice together with other Bishops one Acesius a Novatianist touching whose diversity in opinion from the Church the Emperour desirous to hear some reason asked of him certain Questions for Answer whereunto Acesius weaveth out a long History of things that hapned in the Persecution under Decius And of men which to savelife forsook Faith But in the end was a certain bitter Canon framed in their own School That men which fall into deadly sin after holy Baptism ought never to be again admitted to the Communion of Divine Mysteries That they are to be exhorted unto Repentance howbeit not to be put in hope that Pardon can be bad at the Priest's hands but with God which hath Soveraign Power and Authority in himself to remit sins it may be in the end they shall finde Mercy These Followers of Novatian which gave themselves the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clean pure and unspotted men had one point of Montanism more than their Master did professe for amongst Sinnes unpardonable they reckoned second Marriages of which opinion Tertullian making as his usual manner was a salt Apology Such is saith he our stony hardness that defaming our Comforter with a kinde of enormity in Discipline we dam up the doors of the Church no less against twice-married men then against Adulterers and Fornicators Of this sort therefore it was ordained by the Nycene Synod that if any such did return to the Catholick and Apostolick unity they should in Writing binde themselves to observe the Orders of the Church and Communicate as well with them which had been often married or had fallen in time of Persecution as with other sort of Christian people But further to relate or at all to refel the errour of mis-believing men concerning this point is not now to our present purpose greatly necessary The Church may receive no small detriment by corrupt practice even there where Doctrine concerning the substance of things practised is free from any great or dangerous corruption If therefore that which the Papacy doth in matter of Confessions and Absolution be offensive if it palpably serve in the use of the Keyes howsoever that which it teacheth in general concerning the Churches power to retain and forgive sinnes be admitted true have they not on the one side as much whereat to be abasht as on the other wherein to rejoyce They binde all men upon pain of everlasting condemnation and death to make Confessions to their Ghostly Fathers of every great offence they know and can remember that they have committed against God Hath Christ in his Gospel so delivered the Doctrine of Repentance unto the World Did his Apostles so preach it to Nations Have the Fathers so believed or so taught Surely Novatian was not so merciless in depriving the Church of power to Absolve some certain Offenders as they in imposing upon all a necessity thus to confess Novatian would not deny but God might remit that which the Church could not whereas in the Papacy it is maintained that what we conceal from men God himself shall never pardon By which over-sight as they have here surcharged the World with multitude but much abated the weight of Confessions so the careless manner of their Absolution hath made Discipline for the most part amongst them a bare Formality Yea rather a mean of emboldening unto vicious and wicked life then either any help to prevent future or medicine to remedy present evils in the Soul of man The Fathers were slow and alwayes fearful to absolve any before very manifest tokens given of a true Penitent and Contrite spirit It was not their custom to remit sin first and then to impose works of satisfaction as the fashion of Rome is now in so much that this their preposterous course and mis-ordered practises hath bred also in them an errour concerning the end and purpose of these works For against the guiltiness of sin and the danger of everlasting condemnation thereby incurâ—ed Confession and Absolution succeeding the same are as they take it a remedy sufficient and therefore what their Penitentiaries do think to enjoyn farther whether it be a number of Ave-Maries dayly to be scored up a Journey of Pilgrimage to be undertaken some few Dishes of ordinary Diet to be exchanged Offerings to be made at the shrines of Saints or a little to be scraped off from Mens superfluities for relief of poor People all is in lieu or exchange with God whose Justice notwithstanding our Pardon yet oweth us still some Temporal punishment either in this or in the life to come except we quit it our selves here with works of the former kinde and continued till the ballance of God's most strict severity shall finde the pains we have taken equivalent with the plagues which we should endure or else the mercy of the Pope relieve us And at this Postern-gate cometh in the whole Mart of Papal Indulgences so infinitely strewed that the pardon of Sinne which heretofore was obtained hardly and by much suit is with them become now almost impossible to be escaped To set down then the force of this Sentence in Absolving Penitents There are in Sinne these three things The Act which passeth away and vanisheth The Pollution wherewith it leaveth the Soul defiled And the Punishment whereunto they are made subject that have committed it The act of Sin is every deed word and thought against the Law of God For Sinne is the transgression of the Law and although the deed it self do not continue yet is that bad quality permanent whereby it maketh the Soul unrighteous and deformed in God's sight From the Heart come evil Cogitations Murthers Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Testimonies Slanders These are things which defile a man They do not only as effects of impurity argue the Nest no be unclean out of which they came but as causes they strengthen that disposition unto Wickedness which brought them forth They are both fruits and seeds
other saith That the old did onely shadow Grace which was afterward to be given through the passion of Iesus Christ. But the after-wit of latter daies hath found out another more exquisite distinction That Evangelical Sacraments are causes to effect Grace through motions of signes legal according to the same signification and sense wherein Evangelical Sacraments are held by us to be God's Instruments for that purpose For howsoever Bellarmine hath shrunk up the Lutherans sinews and cut off our Doctrine by the skirts Allen although he terms us Hereticks according to the usual bitter venom of his first style doth yet ingenuously confess That the old School-mens Doctrine and ours is one concerning Sacramental efficacy derived from God himself assisting by promise those outward signes of Elements and Words out of which their School-men of the newer mint are so desirous to hatch Grace Where God doth work and use these outward means wherein he neither findeth nor planteth force and aptnesse towards his intended purpose such means are but signes to bring men to the consideration of his Omnipotent Power which without the use of things sensible would not be marked At the time therefore when he giveth his Heavenly Grace he applyeth by the hands of his Ministers that which betokeneth the same nor only betokeneth but being also accompanied for ever with such Power as doth truly work is in that respect termed God's Instrument a true efficient cause of Grace a cause not in it self but onely by connexion of that which is in it self a cause namely God's own Strength and Power Sacraments that is to say the outward signes in Sacraments work nothing till they be blessed and sanctified by God But what is God's Heavenly Benediction and Sanctification saving onely the association of his Spirit Shall we say that Sacraments are like Magical signes if thus they have their effect Is it Magick for God to manifest by things sensible what he doth and to do by his most glorious Spirit really what he manifesteth in his Sacraments The delivery and administration whereof remaineth in the hands of mortal men by whom as by personal Instruments God doth apply signes and with signes inseparably joyn his Spirit and through the power of his Spirit work Grace The first is by way of concomitance and consequence to deliver the rest also that either accompany or ensue It is not here as in Cases of mutual Commerce where divers Persons have divers acts to be performed in their own behalf a Creditor to shew his Bill and a Debtor to pay his Money But God and Man doe here meet in one Action upon a Third in whom as it is the work of God to create Grace so it is his work by the hand of the Ministry to apply a sign which should betoken and his work to annex that Spirit which shall effect it The Action therefore is but one God the Author thereof and Man a Co-partner by him assigned to work for with and under him God the Giver of Grace by the outward Ministery of man so farr forth as he authorizeth man to apply the Sacraments of Grace in the Soul which he alone worketh without either Instrument or Co-agent Whereas therefore with us the remission of Sinne is ascribed unto God as a thing which proceedeth from him only and presently followeth upon the vertue of true Repentance appearing in man that which we attribute to the vertue they do not only impute to the Sacrament of Repentance but having made Repentance a Sacrament and thinking of Sacraments as they do they are enforced to make the Ministry of the Priests and their Absolution a cause of that which the sole Omnipotency of God worketh And yet for my own part I am not able well to conceive how their Doctrine That human Absolution is really a cause out of which our Deliverance from Sinne doth ensue can cleave with the Council of Trent defining That Contrition perfected with Charity doth at all times it self reconcile offenders to God before they come to receive actually the Sacrament of Penance How it can stand with those Discourses of the learned Rabbies which grant That whosoever turneth unto God with his whole heart hath immediately his Sinnes taken away That if a man he truly converted his Pardon can neither be denyed nor delayed It doth not stay for the Priest's Absolution but presently followeth Surely if every contrite Sinner in whom there is Charity and a sincere conversion of Heart have Remission of Sinnes given him before he seek it at the Priest's hands if reconciliation to God be a present and immediate sequel upon every such Conversion or Change It must of necessity follow seeing no man can be a true Penitent or Contrite which doth not both love God and sincerely abhor Sinne that therefore they all before Absolution attain Forgivenesse whereunto notwithstanding Absolution is pretended a Cause so necessary that Sinne without it except in some rare extraordinary Case cannot possibly be remitted Shall Absolution be a Cause producing and working that Effect which is alwayes brought forth without it and had before Absolution be thought of But when they which are thus before-hand pardoned of God shall come to be also assoiled by the Priest I would know what force his Absolution hath in this case Are they able to say here that the Priest doth remit any thing Yet when any of ours ascribeth the Work of Remission to God and interpreteth the Priests Sentence to be but a solemn Declaration of that which God himself hath already performed they scorn at it they urge against it that if this were true our Saviour Christ should rather have said What is loosed in Heaven ye shall loose on Earth then as he doth Whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall in Heaven be loosed As if he were to learn of us how to place his words and not we to crave rather of him a sound and right understanding lest to his dishonour and our own hurt we mis-expound them It sufficeth I think both against their constructions to have proved that they ground an untruth on his speech and in behalf of our own that his words without any such transposition do very well admit the sense we give them which is that he taketh to himself the lawfull proceedings of Authority in his Name and that the Act of Spiritual Authority in this case is by Sentence to acquit or pronounce them free from sinne whom they judge to be sincerely and truly penitent which Interpretation they themselves do acknowledge though not sufficient yet very true Absolution they say declareth indeed but this is not all for it likewise maketh innocent which addition being an untruth proved our truth granted hath I hope sufficiency without it and consequently our opinion therein neither to be challenged as untrue nor as unsufficient To rid themselves out of these Bryars and to make Remission of Sinnes an effect of Absolution notwithstanding that which hitherto hath been said
doubted but many of the Fathers were saved but the means I said was not their ignorance which excuseth no man with God but their knowledge and Faith of the Truth which it appeareth God vouchsafed them by many notable Monuments and Records extant in all Ages Which being the last point in all my Sermon rising so naturally from the Text I then propounded as would have occasioned me to have delivered such matter notwithstanding the former Doctrine had been sound and being dealt in by a general speech without touch of his particular I looked not that a matter of Controversie would have been made of it no more than had been of my like dealing in former time But far otherwise than I looked for Mr. Hooker shewing no grief of Offence taken at my speech all the week long the next Sabbath leaving to proceed upon his ordinarie Text professed to preach again that he had done the day before for some question that his Doctrine was drawn into which he desired might be examined with all severitie So proceeding he bestowed his whole time in that discourse concerning his former Doctrine and answering the places of Scripture which I had alledged to prove that a man dying in the Church of Rome is not to be judged by the Scriptures to be saved In which long speech and utterly impertinent to his Text under colour of answering for himself he impugned directly and openly to all mens understanding the true Doctrine which I had delivered and adding to his former Points some other like as willingly one Error followeth another that is That the Galatians joyning with Faith in Christ Circumcision as necessary to Salvation might not be saved And that they of the Church of Rome may be saved by such a Faith of Christ as they had with a general Repentance of all their Errors notwithstanding their opinion of Iustification in part by their works and merits I was necessarily though not willingly drawn to say something to the Points he objected against sound Doctrine which I did in a short speech in the end of my Sermon with protestation of so doing no of any sinister affection to any man but to bear witness to the Truth according to my Calling and wished if the matter should needs further be dealt in some other more convenient way might be taken for it wherein I hope my dealing was manifest to the Consciences of all indifferent Hearers of me that day to have been according to Peace and without any uncharitableness being duly considered For that I conferred with him the first day I have shewed that the Cause requiring of me the Duty at the least not to be altogether silent in it being a matter of such consequence that the time also being short wherein I was to preach after him the hope of the fruit of our communication being small upon experience of forme Conferences my expectation being that the Church should be no further troubled with it upon the motion I made of taking some other course of dealing I suppose my deferring to speak with him till some fit opportunitie cannot in Charity be judged uncharitable The second day his unlooked for opposition with the former Reasons made it to be a matter that required of necessity some Publick answer which being so temporate as I have shewed if notwithstanding it be sensured as uncharitable and punished so grievously as it is What should have been my punishment if without all such cautions and respects as qualified my speech I had before all and in the understanding of all so reproved him offending openly that others might have feared to doe the like which yet if I had done might have been warranted by the rule and charge of the Apostle Them that offend openly rebuke openly that the rest may also fear and by his example who when Peter in this very Case which is now between us had not in Preaching but in a matter of Conversation not gone with a right foot as was fit for the truth of the Gospel conferred not privately with him but as his own rule required reproved him openly before all that others might hear and fear and not dare to do the like All which reasons together weighed I hope will shew the manner of my dealing to have been charitable and warrantable in every sort The next Sabbath day after this Mr. Hooker kept the way he had entred into before and bestowed his whole hour and more onely upon the Questions he had moved and maintained wherein he so set forth the agreement of the Church of Rome with us and their disagreement from us as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest Points and differed onely in certain smaller matters Which Agreement noted by him in two chief points is not such as he would have made men believe The one in that he said They acknowledge all men sinners even the blessed Virgin though some of them freed her from sinne for the Council of Trent holdeth that she was free from sinne Another in that he said They teach Christ's Righteousness to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it For Thomas Aquinas their chief Schoolman and Archbishop Catherinus teach That Christ took away onely Original sinne and that the rest are to be taken away by our selves yea the Council of Trent teacheth That Righteousness whereby we are righteous in God's sight is an inherent Righteousness which must needs be of our own Works and cannot be understood of the Righteousness inherent onely in Christ's Person and accounted unto us Moreover he taught the same time That neither the Galatians nor the Church of Rome did directly overthrow the foundation of Iustification by Christ alone but onely by consequent and therefore might well be saved or else neither the Churches of the Lutherans nor any which bold any manner of Errour could be saved because saith he every Errour by consequent overthroweth the Foundation In which Discourses and such like he bestowed his whole time and more which if he had affected either the truth of God or the peace or the Church he would truly not have done Whose example could not draw me to leave the Scripture I took in hand but standing about an hour to deliver the Doctrine of it in the end upon just occasion of the Text leaving sundry other his unsound speeches and keeping me still to the Principal I confirmed the believing the Doctrine of Justification by Christ onely to be necessary to the Justification of all that should be saved and that the Church of Rome directly denieth that a man is saved by Christ or by Faith alone without the works of the Law Which my Answer as it was most necessary for the service of God and the Church so was it without any immodest or reproachful speech to Mr. Hooker whose unsound and wilful dealings in a Cause of so great importance to the Faith of Christ and salvation of the Church
by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet concerning the rest they teach as we do that all have sinned Against my words they might with more pretence take exception Because so many of them think she had sinne which exception notwithstanding the Proposition being indefinite and the matter contingent they cannot take because they grant That many whom they account grave and devout amongst them think that she was clear from all sinne But whether Mr. Travers did note my words himself or take them upon the credit of some other man's noting the Tables were faulty wherein it was noted All men sinners even the Blessed Virgin When my second Speech was rather All men except the Blessed Virgin To leave this another fault he findeth that I said They teach Christs Righteousnesse to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it I did say and doe They teach as we do that although Christ be the onely meritorious cause of our Iustice yet as a medicine which is made for Health doth not heal by being made but by being applyed So by the merits of Christ there can be no Life nor Iustification without the application of his merits But about the manner of applying Christ about the number and power of means whereby he is applyed we dissent from them This of our dissenting from them is acknowledged 14. Our agreement in the former is denied to be such as I pretend Let their own words therefore and mine concerning them be compared Doth not Andradius plainly confess Our sins do shut and onely the merits of Christ open the entring unto blessedness And So to It is put for a good ground that all since the fall of Adam obtained Salvation onely by the Passion of Christ Howbeit as no cause can be effectual without applying so neither can any man be saved to whom the suffering of Christ is not applied In a word who not When the Council of Trent reckoning up the causes of our first Justification doth name no end but God's Glory and our Felicity no efficient but his Mercy no Instrumental but Baptism no meritorious but Christ whom to have merited the taking away of no sin but Original is not their opinion which himself will finde when he hath well examined his Witnesses Catharinus and Thomas Their Jesuites are marvellous angry with the men out of whose gleanings Mr. Travers seemeth to have taken this they openly disclaim it they say plainly Of all this Catholicks there is no one this did ever so teach they make solemn protestation We believe and profess That Christ upon the Cross hath altogether satisfied for all sins as well Original as Actual Indeed they teach that the merit of Christ doth not take away Actual sinne in such sort as it doth Original wherein if their Doctrine had been understood I for my speech had never been accused As for the Council of Trent concerning inherent Righteousness what doth it here No man doubteth but they make another formal cause of Justification than we do In respect whereof I have shewed you already that we disagree about the very essence of that which cureth our Spiritual disease Most time it is which the grand Philosopher hath Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth and therefore till we know the things throughly whereof we judge it is a point of judgment to stay our judgment 15. Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my Doctrine some pains he taketh further to open faults in the manner of my teaching as that I bestowed my whole hour and more my time and more than my time in discourses utterly impertinent to my Text. Which if I had done it might have past without complaining of to the Privy Council 16. But I did worse as he saith I left the expounding of the Scriptures and my ordinary Calling and discoursed upon School-points and questions neither of edification nor of truth I read no Lecture in the Law or in Physick And except the bounds of ordinary Calling may be drawn like a Purse how are they so much wider unto him than to me that he which in the limits of his ordinary Calling should reprove that in me which he understood not and I labouring that both he and others might understand could not do this without forsaking my Calling The matter whereof I spake was such as being at the first by me but lightly touched he had in that place openly contradicted and solemnly taken upon him to disprove If therefore it were a School-question and unfit to be discoursed of there that which was in me but a Proposition onely at the first wherefore made he a Probleme of it Why took he first upon him to maintain the negative of that which I had affirmatively spoken onely to shew mine own opinion little thinking that ever it would have been a Question Of what nature soever the Question were I could doe no lesse than there explain my self to them unto whom I was accused of unsound Doctrine wherein if to shew what had been through ambiguity mistaken in my words or misapplied by him in this Cause against me I used the distinctions and helps of Schools I trust that herein I have committed no unlawful thing These School-implements are acknowledged by grave and wise men not unprofitable to have been invented The most approved for Learning and Judgement do use them without blame the use of them hath been well liked in some that have taught even in this very place before me the quality of my Hearers is such that I could not but think them of capacity very sufficient for the most part to conceive harder than I used any the cause I had in hand did in my judgment necessarily require them which were then used when my words spoken generally without distinctions had been perverted what other way was there for me but by distinctions to lay them open in their right meaning that it might appear to all men whether they were consonant to truth or no And although Mr. Travers be so inured with the City that he thinketh it unmeet to use any speech which savoureth of the School yet his opinion is no Canon though unto him his minde being troubled my speech did seem like Fetters and Manacles yet there might be some more calmly affected which thought otherwise his private judgment will hardly warrant his bold words that the things which I spake were neither of edification nor truth They might edifie some other for any thing he knoweth and be true for any thing he proveth to the contrary For it is no proof to cry Absurdities the like whereunto have not been heard in publick places within this Land since Queen Marie's days If this came in earnest from him I am sorry to see him so much offended without cause more sorry that his fitâ— should be so extream to make him speak he knoweth not what That I
therefore addeth reasons such as they are as namely how he purposed at the first to take another course and that was this Publickly to deliver the truth of such Doctrine as I had otherwise taught and at convenient opportunity to conferr with me upon such points Is this the rule of Christ If thy Brother offend openly in his speech controll it first with contrary speech openly and conferr with him afterwards upon it when convenient opportunity serveth Is there any Law of God or Man whereupon to ground such a Resolution any Church extant in the World where Teachers are allowed thus to doe or to be done unto He cannot but see how weak an allegation it is when he bringeth in his following this course first in one matter and so afterwards in another to approve himself now following it again For if the purpose of doing of a thing so uncharitable be a fault the deed is a greater fault and doth the doing of it twice make it the third time fit and allowable to be done The weight of the Cause which is his third defence relieveth him as little The weightier it was the more it required considerate advice and consultation the more it stood him upon to take good heed that nothing were rashly done or spoken in it But he meaneth weighty in regard of the wonderful danger except he had presently withstood me without expecting a time of Conference This Cause being of such moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable wayes and other weak in Faith to suffer themselves to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls he thought it his bounden duty to speak before he talked with me A man that should read this and not know what I had spoken might imagine that I had at the least denied the Divinity of Christ. But they which were present at my speech and can testifie that nothing passed my lips more than is contained in their Writings whom for soundnesse of Doctrine Learning and Judgment Mr. Travers himself doth I dare say not onely allow but honour they which heard and do know that the Doctrine here signified in so fearful manner the Doctrine that was so dangerous to the Faith of Christ that was so likely to encourage ill-affected men to continue still in their damnable wayes that gave so great cause to tremble for fear of the present destruction of Souls was onely this I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living heretofore in the Popish Superstition in as much as they sinned ignorantly and this spoken in a Sermon the greatest part whereof was against Popery they will hardly be able to discern how CHRISTIANITY should herewith be so grievously shaken 21. Whereby his fourth excuse is also taken from him For what doth it boot him to say The time was short wherein he was to preach after me when his Preaching of this matter perhaps ought surely might have been either very well omitted or at least more conveniently for a while deferred even by their Judgements that cast the most favourable aspect towards these his hasty proceedings The poyson which men had taken at my hands was not so quick and strong in operation as in eight dayes to make them past cure by eight dayes delay there was no likelihood that the force and power of his Speech could dye longer meditation might bring better and stronger proofs to minde than extemporal dexterity could furnish him with And who doth know whether Time the onely Mother of sound Judgement and discreet dealing might have given that action of his some better ripeness which by so great festination hath as a thing born out of time brought small joy unto him that begat it Doth he think it had not been better that neither my speech had seemed in his eyes as an Arrow sticking in a thigh of Flesh nor his own as a Childe whereof he must needs be delivered by an hour His last way of disburthening himself is by casting his Load upon my Back as if I had brought him by former Conferences out of hope that any fruit should ever come of conferring with me Loth I am to rip up those Conferences whereof he maketh but a slippery and loose relation In one of them the question between us was Whether the perswasion of Faith concerning remission of sinnes eternal life and whatsoever God doth promise unto man be as free from doubting as the perswasion which we have by sense concerning things tasted felt and seen For the Negative I mentioned their example whose Faith in Scripture is most commended and the experience which all faithful men have continually had of themselves For proof of the Affirmative which he held I desiring to have some reason heard nothing but all good Writers oftentimes inculâ—aâ—ed At the length upon request to see some one of them Peter Martyr's Common places were brought where the leaves were turned down at a place sounding to this effect That the Gospel doth make Christians more vertuous than moral Philosophy doth make Heat hens which came not near the questions by many miles 22. In the other Conference he questioned about the matter of Reprobation misliking first that I had termed God a permissive and no positive cause of the evil which the Schoolmen do call malum cuspae Secondly that to their Objection who say If I be elected do what I will I shall be saved I had answered that the will of God in this thing is not absolute but conditional to save his Elect believing fearing and obediently serving him Thirdly that to stop the mouths of such as grudge and repine against God for rejecting Cast aways I had taught that they are not rejected no not in the purpose and counsel of God without a foreseen worthinesse of rejection going though not in time yet in orderâ— beforeâ— For if God's electing do in orderâ— as needs it must presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be nor onely the positive foresight of their being but also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is through mercy and mercy doth always presuppose misery it followeth that the very Chosen of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not dye they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mine as ulcers putrified in their Fathers â—oyns miserable worthy to be had in detestation and shall any forsaken Creature be able to say unto God Thou didst plunge me into the depth and assign me unto endless torments onely to satisfie thine own will finding nothing in me for which I could seem in thy sight so well worthy to feel everlasting flames 23. When I saw that Mr. Travers carped at these things onely because they lay not open I promised at some convenient time to
and quite forgetting of strife together with the Causes that have either bred it or brought it up that things of small moment never disjoyn them whom one God one Lord one Faith one Spirit one Baptism bands of so great force have linked that a respectively eye towards things wherewith we should not be disquieted make us not as through infirmity the very Patriarchs themselves sometimes were full gorged unable to speak peaceably to their own Brother Finally that no strife may ever be heard of again but this Who shall hate strife most who shall pursue peace and unity with swiftest paces To The Christian Reader WHereas many desirous of resolution in some Points handled in this learned Discourse were earnest to have it Copied out to case so many labours it hath been thought most worthy and very necessary to be printed that not onely they might be satisfied but the whole Church also hereby edified The rather because it will free the Author from the suspition of some Errors which he hath been thought to have favoured Who might well have answered with Cremutius in Tacitus Verba mea arguuntur adeò factorum innocens sum Certainly the event of that time wherein he lived shewed that to be true which the same Author spake of a worse Cui deerat inimicus per amicos oppressus and that there is not minus periculum ex magna fama quà m ex mala But he hath so quit himself that all may see how as it was said of Agricola Simul suis virtutibus simul vitiis aliorum in ipsam gloriam praeceps agebatur Touching whom I will say no more but that which my Author said of the same man Integritatem c. in tanto viro referre injuria virtutum fuerit But as of all other his Writings so of this I will adde that which Velleius spake in commendation of Piso Nemo fuit qui megis quae agenda erant curaret sine ulla ostentatione agendi So not doubting good Christian Reader of thy assent herein but wishing thy favourable acceptance of this Work which will be an inducement to set forth others of his Learned labours I take my leave from Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford the sixth of July 1612. Thine in Christ Jesus HENRY IACKSON A LEARNED DISCOURSE OF Justification Works and how the Foundation of FAITH is overthrown HABAK. 1. 4. The wicked doth compass about the righteous therefore perverse Iudgement doth proceed FOR the better manifestation of the Prophets meaning in this place we are first to consider the wicked of whom he saith that They compass about the righteous Secondly the righteous that are compassed about by them and Thirdly That which is inferred Therefore perverse judgement proceedeth Touching the first There are two kinds of wicked men of whom in the fist of the former to the Corinthians the blessed Apostle speaketh thus Do ye not judge them that are within But God judgeth them that art without There are wicked therefore whom the Church may judge and there are wicked whom God onely judgeth wicked within and wicked without the walls of the Church If within the Church particular persons be apparently such as cannot otherwise be reformed the rule of the Apostolical judgment is this Separate them from among you if whole Assemblies this Separate your selves from among them For what society hath light with darkness But the wicked whom the Prophet meaneth were Babylonians and therefore without For which cause we heard at large heretofore in what sort he urgeth God to judge them 2. Now concerning the righteous their neither it nor ever was any meer natural man absolutely righteous in himself that is to say void of all unrighteousness of all sin We dare not except no not the blessed Virgin her self of whom although we say with St. Augustine for the honour sake which we owe to our Lord and Saviour Christ we are not willing in this cause to move any question of his Mother yet for asmuch as the Schools of Rome have made it a question we may answer with Eusebius Emissenus who speaketh of her and to her in this effect Thou didst by special Prerogative nine months together entertain within the Closet of the Flesh the hope of all the ends of the Earth the honour of the World the common joy of Men. He from whom all things had their beginning had his beginning from thee of the Body he took the blood which was to be shed for the life of the World of thee he took that which even for thee be payed A peccati enim veteris nexu per se non est immunis ipsa genitrix Redemptoris The Mother of the Redeemer himself is not otherwise loosed from the bond of antient sinne than by redemption if Christ have paid a ransom for all even for her it followeth that all without exception were Captives If one have died for all then all were dead in sinne all sinful therefore none absolutely righteous in themselves but we are absolutely righteous in Christ. The World then must shew a righteous man otherwise not able to shew a man that is perfectly righteous Christ is made to us Wisdome Iustice Sanctification and Redemption Wisdom because he hath revealed his Fathers will Iustice because he hath offered up himself a Sacrifice for sin Sanctification because he hath given us his Spirit Redemption because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his Children out of the bonds of Corruption into liberty which is glorious How Christ is made Wisdom and how Redemption it may be declared when occasion serveth But how Christ is made the Righteousness of men we are now to declare 3. There is a glorifying Righteousness of men in the World to come as there is a justifying and sanctifying Righteousness here The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both perfect and inherent That whereby here we are justified is perfect but not inherent That whereby we are sanctified is inherent but not perfect This openeth a way to the understanding of that grand question which hangeth yet in controversie between us and the Church of Rome about the matter of justifying Righteousness 4. First although they imagine that the Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were for his honour and by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet touching the rest they teach as we doe That Infants that never did actually offend have their Natures defiled destitute of Justice averted from God That in making man righteous none do efficiently work with God but God They teach as we do that unto Justice no man ever attained but by the Merits of Jesus Christ. They teach as we do That although Christ as God be the efficient as Man the meritorious cause of our Justice yet in us also there is some thing required God is the cause of our natural life in him we live but he quickneth not
move as frighted men out of their places what Cave shall receive them What Mountain or Rock shall they get by intreaty to fall upon them What covert to hide them from that wrath which they shall neither be able to abide or avoid No man's misery therefore being greater than theirs whose impiety is most fortunate much more cause there is for them to bewail their own infelicity than for others to be troubled with their prosperous and happy estate as if the hand of the Almighty did not or would not touch them For these causes and the like unto these therefore Be not troubled Now though the cause of our heaviness be just yet may not our affections herein be yielded unto with too much indulgency and favour The grief of Compassion whereby we are touched with the feeling of other mens woes is of all other least dangerous Yet this is a leâ—â— unto sundry duties by this we are apt to spare sometimes where we ought to strike The grief which our own sufferings do bring what temptations have not risen from it What great advantage Satan hath taken even by the godly grief of hearty contrition for sins committed against God the near approaching of so many afflicted Souls whom the conscience of sinne hath brought unto the very brink of extreme despair doth but too abundantly shew These things wheresoever they fall cannot but trouble and molest the minde Whether we be therefore moved vainly with that which seemeth hurtful and is not or have just cause of grief being pressed indeed with those things which are grievous our Saviour's Lesson is touching the one Be not troubled not over-troubled for the other For though to have no â—eeling of that which meerly concerneth us were stupidity nevertheless seeing that as the Authour of our Salvation was himself Consecrated by affliction so the way which we are to follow him by is not strewed with rushes but set with thorns be it never so hard to learn we must learn to suffer with patience even that which seemeth almost impossible to be suffered that in the hour when God shall call us unto our trial and turn this honey of peace and pleasure wherewith we swell into that gall and bitterness which Flesh doth shrink to taste of nothing may cause us in the troubles of our Souls to storm and grudge and repine at God but every Heart be enabled with divinely-inspired courage to inculcate unto it self Be not troubled and in those last and greatest Conflicts to remember that nothing may be so sharp and bitter to be suffered but that still we our selves may give our selves this encouragement Even learn also patience O my Soul Naming Patience I name that vertue which onely hath power to stay our Souls from being over-excessively troubled A vertue wherein if ever any surely that Soul had good experience which extremity of pains having chased out of the Tabernacle of this Flesh Angels I nothing doubt have carried into the bosom of her Father Abraham The death of the Saints of God is precious in his sight And shall it seem unto us superfluous at such times as these are to hear in what manner they have ended their lives The Lord himself hath not disdained so exactly to register in the Book of Life after what sort his Servants have closed up their dayes on Earth that he descendeth even to their very meanest actions what meat they have longed for in their Sicknesse what they have spoken unto their Children Kinsfolks and Friends where they have willed their dead Carkasses to be laid how they have framed their Wills and Testaments yea the very turning of their Faces to this side or that the setting of their Eyes the degrees whereby their natural Heat hath departed from them their Cryes their Groans their Pantings Breathings and Last-gaspings he hath most solemnly commended unto the memory of all Generations The care of the living both to live and dye well must needs be somewhat encreased when they know that their departure shall not be foulded up in silence but the ears of many be made acquainted with it Again when they hear how mercifully God hath dealt with others in the hour of their last need besides the praise which they give to God and the joy which they have or should have by reason of their Fellowship and Communion of Saints is not their hope also much confirmed against the day of their own dissolution Finally the sound of these things doth not so passe the ears of them that are most loose and dissolute of life but it causeth them sometime or other to wish in their hearts Oh that we might dye the death of the Righteous and that our end might be like his Howbeit because to spend herein many words would be to strike even as many wounds into their mindes whom I rather wish to comfort Therefore concerning this vertuous Gentlewoman onely this little I speak and that of knowledge She lived a Dove and dyed a Lambe And if amongst so many Vertues hearty Devotion towards God towards Poverty tender Compassion Motherly Affection toward Servants towards Friends even serviceable kindness milde behaviour and harmless meaning towards all if where so many Vertues were eminent any be worthy of special mention I wish her dearest Friends of that sex to be her nearest Followers in two things Silence saving only where duty did exact speech and Patience even then when extremity of pains did enforce grief Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. And concerning the dead which are blessed let not the hearts of any living be over-charged with grief over-troubled Touching the latter affection of Fear which respecteth evil to come as the other which we have spoken of doth present evils first in the nature thereof it is plain that we are not of every future evil afraid Perceive we not how they whose tendernesse shrinketh at the least rase of a Needle 's Point do kisse the Sword that peirceth their Souls quite thorow If every Evil did cause Fear Sinne because it is Sinne would be feared whereas properly Sinne is not feared as Sinne but onely as having some kinde of harm annexed To teach men to avoid sinne it had been sufficient for the Apostle to say Flye it But to make them afraid of committing sinne because the naming of Sin sufficed not therefore he addeth further That it is as a Serpent which stingeth the Soul Again be it that some nocive or hurtful thing be towards us must fear of necessity follow hereupon Not except that hurtful thing doe threaten us either with destruction or vexation and that such as we have neither a conceit of ability to resist nor of utter impossibility to avoid That which we know our selves able to withstand we fear not and that which we know are unable to deferr or diminish or any way avoid we cease to fear we give our selves over to bear and sustain it The evil therefore which is feared must be in our perswasion
and to make the truth of things believed evident unto our mindes is much mightier in operation than the common light of nature whereby we discern sensible things wherefore we must needs be more sure of that we believe than of that we see we must needs be more certain of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus than we are of the light of the Sun when it shineth upon our faces To that of Abraham He did not doubt I answer that this negation doth not exclude all fear all doubting but onely that which cannot stand with true Faith It freeth Abraham from doubting through Infidelity not from doubting through Infirmity from the doubting of Unbelievers not of weak Believers from such a doubting as that whereof the Prince of Samaria is attainted who hearing the promise of sudden Plenty in the midst of Extream Dearth answered Though the Lord would make windows in Heaven were it possible so to come to pass But that Abraham was not void of all doubting what need we any other proof than the plain evidence of his own words Gen. 17. 17. The reason which is taken from the power of the Spirit were effectual if God did work like a natural Agent as the fire doth inflame and the Sun enlighten according to the uttermost ability which they have to bring forth their effects But the incomprehensible wisdom of God doth limit the effects of his power to such a measure as seemeth best unto himself Wherefore he worketh that certainty in all which sufficeth abundantly to their Salvation in the life to come but in none so great as attaineth in this life unto perfection Even so O Lord it hath pleased thee even so it is best and fittest for us that feeling still our own Infirmities we may no longer breathe than pray Adjuva Domine Help Lord our incredulity Of the third Question this I hope will suffice being added unto that which hath been thereof already spoken The fourth Question resteth and so an end of this Point That which cometh last of all in this first branch to be considered concerning the weakness of the Prophet's Faith is Whether he did by this very thought The Law doth fail quench the Spirit fall from Faith and shew himself an Unbeliever or no The Question is of moment the repose and tranquillity of infinite Souls doth depend upon it The Prophet's case is the case of many which way soever we cast for him the same way it passeth for all others If in him this cogitation did extinguish Grace why the like thoughts in us should not take the like effect there is no cause Forasmuch therefore as the matter is weighty dear and precious which we have in hand it behoveth us with so much the greater chariness to wade through it taking special heed both what we build and whereon we build that if our Building be Pearl our Foundation be not Stubble if the Doctrine we teach be full of comfort and consolation the ground whereupon we gather it be sure otherwise we shall not save but deceive both our selves and others In this we know we are not deceived neither can we deceive you when we teach that the Faith whereby ye are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you If it be so let the difference be shewed between the condition of Unbelievers and his in this or in the like imbecillity and weakness There was in Habakkuk that which Saint Iohn doth call the seed of God meaning thereby the first grace which God powreth into the hearts of them that are incorporated into Christ which having received if because it is an adversary to Sinne we do therefore think we sinne not both otherwise and also by distrustful and doubtfull apprehending of that which we ought stedfastly to believe surely we do but deceive our selves Yet they which are of God do not sinne either in this or in any thing any such sinne as doth quite extinguish Grace clean cutt them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound Their Faith when it is at strongest is but weak yet even then when it is at the weakest so strong that utterly it never faileth it never perisheth altogether no not in them who think it extinguished in themselves There are for whose sakes I dare not deal slightly in this Cause sparing that labour which must be bestowed to make it plain Men in like agonies unto this of the Prophet Habakkuk's are through the extremity of grief many times in judgement so confounded that they finde not themselves in themselves For that which dwelleth in their hearts they seek they make diligent search and enquiry It abideth it worketh in them yet still they ask where Still they lament as for a thing which is past finding they mourn as Rachel and refuse to be comforted as if that were not which indeed is and as if that which is not were as if they did not believe when they doe and as if they did despair when they do not Which in some I grant is but a melancholly passion proceeding onely from that dejection of minde the cause whereof is in the Bodâ— and by bodily means can be taken away But where there is no such bodily cause the minde is not lightly in this mood but by some of these three occasions One that judging by comparison either with other men or with themselves at some other time more strong they think imperfection to be a plain deprivation weakness to be utter want of Faith Another cause is they often mistake one thing for another Saint Paul wishing well to the Church of Rome prayeth for them after this sort The God of Hope fill you with all joy of Believing Hence an errour groweth when men in heaviness of Spirit suppose they lack Faith because they finde not the sugred joy and delight which indeed doth accompanie Faith but so as a separable accident as a thing that may be removed from it yea there is a cause why it should be removed The light would never be so acceptable were it not for that usual intercourse of darkness Too much honey doth turn to gall and too much joy even spiritual would make us Wantons Happier a great deal is that man's case whose Soul by inward desolation is humbled than he whose heart is through abundance of Spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure Better it is sometimes to go down into the pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me than continually to work arm in arm with Angels to fit as it were in Abraham's bosom and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank my God it is not with me as it is with other men No God will have them that shall walk in light to feel now and then
a Minister to Preach Christ crucified In regard whereof not onely worldly things but things otherwise precious even the Discipline it self is vile and base Whereas now by the heat of Contention and violence of Affection the Zeal of Men towards the one hath greatly decayed their love to the other Hereunto therefore they are to be exhorted to Preach Christ crucified the Mortification of the Flesh the Renewing of the Spirit not those things which in time of Strife seem precious but Passions being allayed are vain and childish GEO. CRANMER This Epitaph was long since presented to the World in Memory of Mr. Hooker by Sir William Cooper who also built him a fair Monument in Borne-Church and acknowledges him to have been his Spiritual Father THough nothing can be spoke worthy his Fame Or the Remembrance of that precious Name Iudicious Hooker though this cost be spent On him that hath a Lasting Monument In his own Books yet ought we to express If not his Worth yet oue Respectfulness Church Ceremonies he maintaiu'd Then Why Without all Ceremony should he die Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal Patterns of Humility Or that perhaps this onely glorious one Was above all to ask Why had he none Yet he that lay so long obscurely low Doth now preferr'd to greater Honors go Ambitious men Learn hence to be more wise Humility is the true way to rise And God in me this Lesson did Inspire To bid this humble Man Friend sit up higher TO THE Most Reverend Father in GOD my very good Lord the Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND MOst Reverend in Christ the long continued and more then ordinary favor which hither to your Grace hath been pleased to shew towards me may justly claim at my hands some thankful acknowledgment thereof In which consideration as also for that I embrace willingly the ancient received course and conveniency of that Discipline which teacheth inferior Degrees and Orders in the Church of God to submit their Writings to the same Authority from which their allowable dealings whatsoever in such affairs must receive approbation I nothing fear but that your accustomed clemency will take in good worth the offer of these my simple and mean Labors bestowed for the necessary justification of Laws heretofore made questionable because as I take it they were not perfectly understood For surely I cannot finde any great cause of just complaint that good Laws have so much been wanting unto us as we to them To seek Reformation of evil Laws is a commendable endeavor but for us the more necessary is a speedy redress of our selves We have on all sides lost much of our first fervency towards God and therefore concerning our own degenerated ways we have reason to exhort with St. Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us return again unto that which we sometime were but touching the exchange of Laws in Practice with Laws in Device which they say are better for the State of the Church if they might take place the farther we examine them the greater cause we finde to conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although we continue the same we are the harm is not great These fervent Reprehenders of things established by Publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men But their confidence for the most part riseth from too much credit given to their own wits for which cause they are seldom free from Error The Errors which we seek to reform in this kinde of men are such as both received at your own hands their first wound and from that time to this present have been proceeded in with that Moderation which useth by Patience to suppress boldness and to make them conquer that suffer Wherein considering the nature and kinde of these Controversies the dangerous sequels whereunto they were likely to grow and how many ways we have been thereby taught Wisdom I may boldly aver concerning the first that as the weightiest conflicts the Church hath had were those which touched the Head the Person of our Savior Christ and the next of importance those questions which are at this day between us and the Church of Rome about the Actions of the Body of the Church of God so these which have lastly sprung up from Complements Rites and Ceremonies of Church Actions are in truth for the greatest part such silly things that very easiness doth make them hard to be disputed of in serious manner Which also may seem to be the cause why divers of the Reverend Prelacy and other most judicious men have especially bestowed their pains about the Matter of Jurisdiction Notwithstanding led by your Graces example my self have thought it convenient to wade through the whole Cause following that method which searcheth the Truth by the causes of Truth Now if any marvel how a thing in it self so weak could import any great danger they must consider not so much how small the spark is that flieth up as how apt things about it are to take fire Bodies Politick being subject as much as Natural to dissolution by divers means there are undoubtedly more estates overthrown through diseases bred within themselves then through violence from abroad because our manner is always to cast a doubtful and a more suspicious eye towards that over which we know we have least power And therefore the fear of External dangers causeth forces at home to be the more united It is to all sorts a kinde of Bridle it maketh vertuous Mindes watchful it holdeth contrary Dispositions in suspense and it setteth those Wits on work in better things which could be else imployed in worse whereas on the other side domestical Evils for that we think we can master them at all times are often permitted to run on forward till it be too late to recal them In the mean while the Commonwealth is not onely through unsoundness so far impaired as those evils chance to prevail but farther also through opposition arising between the unsound parts and the sound where each endeavoreth to draw evermore contrary ways till destruction in the end bring the whole to ruine To reckon up how many Causes there are by force whereof Divisions may grow in a Commonwealth is not here necessary Such as rise from variety in Matter of Religion are not onely the farthest spred because in Religion all men presume themselves interessed alike but they are also for the most part hotlier prosecuted and pursued then other strifes for as much as coldness which in other Contentions may be thought to proceed from Moderation is not in these so favorably construed The part which in this present quarrel striveth against the Current and Stream of Laws was a long while nothing feared the wisest contented not to call to minde how Errors have their effect many times not proportioned to that little appearance of Reason whereupon they would seem built but rather to the vehement affection or
fancy which is cast towards them and proceedeth from other Causes For there are divers Motives drawing men to favor mightily those Opinions wherein their Perswasions are but weakly setled and if the Passions of the Minde be strong they easily sophisticate the Understanding they make it apt to believe upon very slender warrant and to imagine infallible Truth where scarce any probable shew appeareth Thus were those poor seduced Creatures Hacquet and his other two adherents whom I can neither speak nor think of but with much commisseration and pity Thus were they trained by fair ways first accompting their own extraordinary love to his Discipline a token of Gods more then ordinary love towards them From hence they grew to a strong conceit that God which had moved them to love his Discipline more then the common sort of men did might have a purpose by their means to bring a wonderful work to pass beyond all mens expectation for the advancement of the Throne of Discipline by some Tragical Execution with the particularities whereof it was not safe for their Friends to be made acquainted of whom they did therefore but covertly demand what they thought of extraordinary Motions of the Spirit in these days and withal request to be commended unto God by their Prayers whatsoever should be undertaken by Men of God in meer Zeal to his Glory and the good of his distressed Church With this unusual and strange course they went on forward till God in whose heaviest worldly Judgments I nothing doubt but that there may lie hidden Mercy gave them over their own Inventions and left them made in the end an example for Head-strong and Inconsiderate Zeal no less fearful then Achitophel for Proud and Irreligious Wisdom If a spark of Error have thus far prevailed falling even where the Wood was green and farthest off to all mens thinking from any inclination unto furious Attempts must not the peril thereof be greater in men whose mindes are of themselves as dry sewel apt beforehand unto Tumults Seditions and Broyls But by this we see in a Cause of Religion to how desperate adventures men will strain themselves for relief of their own part having Law and Authority against them Furthermore Let not any man think that in such Divisions either part can free it self from inconveniencies sustained not onely through a kinde of Truce which Vertue on both sides doth make with Vice during War between Truth and Error but also in that there are hereby so fit occasions ministred for men to purchase to themselves welwillers by the colour under which they oftentimes prosecute quarrels of Envy or Inveterate Malice and especially because Contentions were as yet never able to prevent two Evils The one a mutual exchange of unseemly and unjust disgraces offered by men whose Tongues and Passions are out of rule the other a common hazard of both to be made a prey by such as study how to work upon all Occurents with most advantage in private I deny not therefore but that our Antagonists in these Controversies may peradventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius who mightily bending himself by all means against the Heresie of Priscillian the hatred of which one Evil was all the Vertue he had became so wise in the end That every man careful of Vertuous Conversations studious of Scripture and given unto any abstinence in Diet was set down in his Kalender of suspected Priscillianists for whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of Faith by a more licencious and loose behavior Such Proctors and Patrons the Truth might spare Yet is not their grossness so intolerable as on the contrary side the scurrilous and more then Satyrical immodesty of Martinism the first published Schedules whereof being brought to the hands of a grave and a very Honorable Knight with signification given that the Book would refresh his spirits he took it saw what the Title was read over an unsavory sentence or two and delivered back the Libel with this Answer I am sorry you are of the minde to be solaced with these sports and sorrier you have herein thought mine affection to be like your own But as these sores on all hands lie open so the deepest wounds of the Church of God have been more softly and closely given It being perceived that the Plot of Discipline did not onely bend it self to reform Ceremonies but seek farther to erect a popular authority of Elders and to take away Episcopal Jurisdiction together with all other Ornaments and means whereby any difference or inequality is upheld in the Ecclesiastical Order towards this destructive part they have found many helping hands divers although peradventure not willing to be yoked with Elderships yet contented for what intent God doth know to uphold opposition against Bishops not without greater hurt to the course of their whole proceedings in the business of God and Her Majesties service then otherwise much more weighty Adversaries had been able by their own power to have brought to pass Men are naturally better contented to have their commendable actions supprest then the contrary much divulged And because the Wits of the multitude are such that many things they cannot lay hold on at once but being possest with some notable either dislike or liking of any one thing whatsoever sundry other in the mean time may escape them unperceived Therefore if men desirous to have their Vertues noted do in this respect grieve at the same of others whose glory obscureth and darkness theirs it cannot be chosen but that when the ears of the people are thus continually beaten with exclamations against abuses in the Church these tunes come always most acceptable to them whose odious and corrupt dealings in secular affairs both pass by that mean the more covertly and whatsoever happen do also the least feel that scourge of vulgar imputation which notwithstanding they most deserve All this considered as behoveth the sequel of duty on our part is onely that which our Lord and Saviour requireth harmless Discretion the wisdom of Serpents tempered with the innocent meekness of Doves For this World will teach them wisdom that have capacity to apprehend it Our wisdom in this case must be such as doth not propose to it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our own particular the partial and immoderate desire whereof poysoneth wheresoever it taketh place But the scope and mark which we are to aim at is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick and common good of all for the easier procurement whereof our diligence must search out all helps and furtherances of direction which Scriptures Counsels Fathers Histories the Laws and Practices of all Churches the mutual Conference of all Mens Collections and Observations may afford Our industry must even anatomize every Particle of that Body which we are to uphold sound and because be it never so true which we teach the World to believe yet if once their affections begin to be alienated a
which Admonitions all that I mean to say is but this There will come a time when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed Reward then three thousand Volumns written with disdainful sharpness of Wit But the manner of Mens Writings must not alienate our hearts from the Truth if it appear they have the Truth as the Followers of the same Defender do think he hath and in that perswasion they follow him no otherwise then himself doth Calvin Beza and others with the like perswasion that they in this cause had the Truth We being as fully perswaded otherwise it resteth that some kinde of tryal be used to finde out which part is in error 3. The first mean whereby Nature teacheth men to judge good from evil as well in Laws as in other things is the force of their own discretion Hereunto therefore St. Paul referreth oftentimes his own speech to be considered of by them that heard him I speak as to them which have understanding Judge ye what I say Again afterward Judge in your selves is it comly that a woman pray uncovered The exercise of this kinde of judgment our Saviour requireth in the Iews In them of Berea the Scripture commendeth it Finally Whatsoever we do if our own secret judgment consent not unto it as fit and good to be done the doing of it to us is sin although the thing it self be allowable St. Pauls rule therefore generally is Let every man in his own minde be fully perswaded of that thing which he either alloweth or doth Some things are so familiar and plain that Truth from Falshood and Good from Evil is most easily discerned in them even by men of no deep capacity And of that nature for the most part are things absolutely unto all Mens salvation necessary either to he held or denied either to be done or avoided For which cause St. Augustine acknowledgeth that they are not onely set down but also plainly set down in Scripture So that he which heareth or readeth may without any great difficulty understand Other things also there are belonging though in a lower degree of importance unto the offices of Christian men Which because they are more obscure more intricate and hard to be judged of therefore God hath appointed some to spend their whole time principally in the study of things Divine to the end that in these more doubtful cases their understanding might be a light to direct others If the understanding power or faculty of the Soul be saith the Grand Physitian like unto bodily sight not of equal sharpness in all What can be more convenient then that even as the dark-sighted man is directed by the clear about things visible so likewise in matters of deeper discourse the wise in heart do shew the simple where his way lieth In our doubtful Cases of Law what man is there who seeth not how requisite it is that Professors of skill in that Faculty be our Directors so it is in all other kindes of knowledge And even in this kinde likewise the Lord hath himself appointed That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that other men should seek the truth at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Gregory Nazianzen offended at the peoples too great presumption in controlling the judgment of them to whom in such cases they should have rather submitted their own seeketh by earnest entreaty to stay them within their bounds Presume not ye that are Sheep to make your selves Guides of them that should guide you neither seek ye to overslip the fold which they about you have pitched It sufficeth for your part if ye can well frame your selves to be ordered Take not upon you to judge your selves nor to make them subject to your Laws who should be a Law to you for God is not a God of Sedition and Confusion but of Order and of Peace But ye will say that if the Guides of the people be blinde the common sort of men must not close up their own eyes and be led by the conduct of such If the Priest be partial in the Law the flock must not therefore depart from the ways of sincere Truth and in simplicity yield to be followers of him for his place sake and office over them Which thing though in it self most true is in your defence notwithstanding weak because the matter wherein ye think that ye see and imagine that your ways are sincere is of far deeper consideration then any one amongst Five hundred of you conceiveth Let the vulgar sort among you know that there is not the least branch of the Cause wherein they are so resolute but to the tryal of it a great deal more appertaineth then their conceit doth reach unto I write not this in disgrace of the simplest that way given but I would gladly they knew the nature of that cause wherein they think themselves throughly instructed and are not by means whereof they daily run themselves without feeling their own hazzard upon the dint of the Apostles sentence against evil speakers as touching things wherein they are ignorant If it be granted a thing unlawful for private men not called unto Publick Consultation to dispute which is the best State of Civil Policy with a desire of bringing in some other kinde them that under which they already live for of such Disputes I take it his meaning was If it be a thing confest that of such Questions they cannot determine without rashness in as much as a great part of them consisteth in special Circumstances and for one kinde as many Reasons may be brought as for another Is there any reason in the World why they should better judge what kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical is the fittest For in the Civil State more insight and in those affairs more experience a great deal must needs be granted them then in this they can possibly have When they which write in defence of your Discipline and commend it unto the Highest not in the least cunning manner are forced notwithstanding to acknowledge That with whom the Truth is they know not they are not certain what certainly or knowledge can the multitude have thereof Weigh what doth move the common sort so much to favor this Innovation and it shall soon appear unto you that the force of particular Reasons which for your several Opinions are alleaged is a thing whereof the multitude never did nor could so consider as to be therewith wholly carried but certain general Inducements are used to make saleable your Cause in gross And when once men have cast a fancy towards it any slight Declaration of Specialties will serve to lead forward mens inclineable and prepared mindes The method of winning the peoples affection unto a general liking of the Cause for so ye term it hath been this First in the hearing of the multitude the faults especially of
higher Callings are ripped up with marvellous exceeding severity and sharpness of Reproof which being oftentimes dont begetteth a great good opinion of Integrity zeal and Holiness to such constant reprovers of sin as by likelihood would never be so much offended at that which is evil unless themselves were singularly good The next thing hereunto is to impute all Faults and Corruptions wherewith the World aboundeth unto the kinde of Ecclesiastical Government established Wherein as before by reproving Faults they purchased unto themselves with the multitude a name to be vertuous so by finding out this kinde of Cause they obtain to be judged wise above others whereas in truth unto the Form even of Iewish Government which the Lord himself they all confess did establish with like shew of Reason they might impute those Faults which the Prophets condemn in the Governors of that Commonwealth as to the English kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical whereof also God himself though in another sort is Author the stains and blemishes found in our State which springing from the Root of Humane Frailty and Corruption not onely are but have been always more or less yea and for any thing we know to the contrary will be till the Worlds end complained of what Form of Government soever take place Having gotten thus much sway in the hearts of men a third step is to propose their own Form of Church Government as the onely soveraign remedy of all Evils and to adorn it with all the glorious Titles that may be And the Nature as of men that have sick bodies so likewise of the people in the crazedness of their Mindes possest with dislike and discontentment at things present is to imagine that any thing the vertue whereof they hear commended would help them but that most which they least have tryed The fourth degree of Inducements is by fashioning the very notions and conceits of mens mindes in such sort that when they read the Scripture they may think that every thing soundeth towards the advancement of that Discipline and to the utter disgrace of the contrary Pythagoras by bringing up his Schollars in speculative knowledge of numbers made their conceipts therein so strong that when they came to the contemplation of things natural they imagined that in every particular thing they even beheld as it were with their eyes how the Elements of Number gave Essence and Being to the Works of Nature A thing in reason impossible which notwithstanding through their misfashioned preconceit appeared unto them no less certain then if Nature had written it in the very Foreheads of all the Creatures of God When they of the Family of Love have it once in their heads that Christ doth not signifie any one Person but a Quality whereof many are partakers that to be raised is nothing else but to be regenerated or endued with the said quality and that when Separation of them which have if from them which have it not is here made this is judgment How plainly do they imagine that the Scripture every where speaketh in the favor of that Sect And assuredly the very cause which maketh the simple and ignorant to think they even see how the Word of God runneth currantly on your side is That their mindes are forestalled and their conceits perverted beforehand by being taught that an Elder doth signifie a Lay-man admitted onely to the Office of Rule or Government in the Church a Doctor one which may onely Teach and neither Preach nor Administer the Sacraments a Deacon one which hath charge of the Alms-box and of nothing else That the Scepter the Rod the Throne and Kingdom of Christ art a Form of Regiment onely by Pastors Elders Doctors and Deacons that by Mystical Resemblance Mount Sion and Jerusalem are the Churches which admit Samaria and Babylon the Churches which oppugne the said Form of Regiment And in like sort they are taught to apply all things spoken of repairing the Walls and decayed parts of the City and Temple of God by Esdras Nehemias and the rest As if purposely the Holy Ghost had therein meant to fore-signifie what the Authors of Admonitions to the Parliament of Supplications to the Council of Petitions to Her Majesty and of such other-like Writs should either do or suffer in behalf of this their Cause From hence they proceed to an higher point which is the perswading of men credulous and over-capable of such pleasing Errors That it is the special illumination of the Holy Ghost whereby they discern those things in the Word which others reading yet discern them not Dearly Beloved saith St. John Give not credit unto every spirit There are but two ways whereby the Spirit leadeth men into all Truth the one extraordinary the other common the one belonging but unto some few the other extending it self unto all that are of God the one that which we call by a special divine excellency Revelation the other Reason If the Spirit by such Revelation have discovered unto them the secrets of that Discipline out of Scripture they must profess themselves to be all even Men Women and Children Prophets Or if Reason be the hand which the Spirit hath led them by for as much as Perswasions grounded upon Reason are either weaker or stronger according to the force of those Reasons whereupon the same are grounded they must every of them from the greatest to the least be able for every several Article to shew some special Reason as strong as their Perswasion therein is earnest Otherwise how can it be but that some other sinews there are from which that everplus of strength in Perswasion doth arise Most sure it is That when Mens Affections do frame their Opinions they are in defence of Error more earnest a great deal then for the most part sound Believers in the maintenance of Truth apprehended according to the nature of that evidence which Scripture yieldeth Which being in some things plain as in the Principles of Christian Doctrine in some things as in these Matters of Discipline more dark and doubtful frameth correspondently that inward assent which Gods most gracious Spirit worketh by it as by his Effectual Instrument It is not therefore the servent earnestness of their perswasion but the soundness of those Reasons whereupon the same is built which must declare their Opinions in these things to have been wrought by the Holy Ghost and not by the Fraud of that evil spirit which is even in his illusions strong After that the fancy of the common sort hath once thorowly apprehended the Spirit to be Author of their Perswasions concerning Discipline then is instilled into their hearts that the same Spirit leading men into this opinion doth thereby seal them to be Gods Children and that as the state of the times now standeth the most special taken to know them that are Gods own from others is an earnest affection that way This hath bred high terms of Separation between such and the rest of the
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
with joy and reverence Now there is no Controversie but as God in that special Case did authorize Nathan so Christ more generally his Apostles and the Ministers of his Word in his Name to absolve Sinners Their power being equal all the difference between them can be but only in this that whereas the one had prophetical evidence the other have the certainty partly of Faith and partly of Human experience whereupon to ground their Sentence Faith to assure them of God's most graous Pardon in Heaven unto all Penitents and touching the sincerity of each particular Parties repentance as much as outward sensible tokens or signes can warrant It is not to be marvelled that so great a difference appeareth between the Doctrine of Rome and Ours when we teach Repentance They imply in the Name of Repentance much more than we do We stand chiefly upon the due inward Conversion of the Heart They more upon Works of external shew We teach above all things that Repentance which is one and the same from the beginning to the World's end They a Sacramental Penance of their own devising and shaping We labour to instruct men in such sort that every Soul which is wounded with sin may learn the way how to cure it self They clean contrary would make all Soars seem incurable unless the Priests have a hand in them Touching the force of whose Absolution they strangely hold that whatsoever the Penitent doth his Contrition Confession and Satisfaction have no place of right to stand as material parts in this Sacrament nor consequently any such force as to make them available for the taking away of Sin in that they proceed from the Penitent himself without the privity of the Minister but only as they are enjoyned by the Minister's Authority and Power So that no contrition or grief of heart till the Priest exact it no acknowledgement of Sins but that which he doth demand no Praying no Fasting no Alms no Recompence or Restitution for whatsoever we have done can help except by him it be first imposed It is the Chain of their own Doctrine No remedy for mortal sin committed after Baptism but the Sacrament of Penance only No Sacrament of Penance if either matter or form be wanting No wayes to make those Duties a material part of the Sacrament unless we consider them as required and exacted by the Priest Our Lord and Saviour they say hath ordained his Priests Judges in such sort that no man which sinneth after Baptisme can be reconciled unto God but by their Sentence For why If there were any other way of Reconciliation the very promise of Christ should be false in saying Whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whose sins soever ye retain are retained Except therefore the Priest be willing God hath by promise hampred himself so that it is not now in his own power to pardon any man Let him which is offended crave as the Publican did Lord he thou merciful unto me a sinner Let him as David make a thousand times his supplication Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy compassions put away mine iniquities All this doth not help till such time as the pleasure of the Priest be known till he have signed us a pardon and given us our quietus est God himself hath no Answer to make but such as that of his Angel unto Lot I can do nothing It is true that our Saviour by these words Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted did ordain Judges over our sinful Souls gave them Authority to absolve from sin and promise to ratifie in Heaven whatsoever they should do on Earth in execution of this their Offices to the end that hereby as well his Ministers might take encouragement to do their Duty with all Faithfulness as also his People admonition gladly with all reverence to be ordered by them both parts knowing that the Functions of the one towards the other have his perpetual assistance and approbation Howbeit all this with two Restraints which every Jurisdiction in the World hath the one that the practice thereof proceed in due order the other that it do not extend it self beyond due bounds which bounds or limits have so confined penitential Jurisdiction that although there be given unto it power of remitting sinne yet not such Soveraignty of Power that no sin should be pardonable in man without it Thus to enforce our Saviour's words is as though we should gather that because Whatsoever Ioseph did command in the Land of Pharaoh's grant is it should be done therefore he granteth that nothing should be done in the Land of Egypt but what Ioseph did command and so consequently by enabling his Servant Ioseph to command under him disableth himself to command any thing without Ioseph But by this we see how the Papacy maketh all Sin unpardonable which hath not the Priests Absolution except peradventure in some extraordinary case where albeit Absolution be not had yet it must be desired What is then the force of Absolution What is it which the act of Absolution worketh in a sinful man doth it by any operation derived from it self alter the state of the Soul Doth it really take away sin or but ascertain us of God's most gracious and merciful pardon The latter of which two is our assertion the former theirs At the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ saying unto the sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee the Pharisees which knew him not to be Son of the living God took secret exception and fell to reasoning with themselves against him Is any able to forgive Sin but God only The Sins saith St. Cyprian that are committed against him he alone hath power to forgive which took upon him our sins he which sorrowed and suffered for us he whom the Father delivered unto death for our offences Whereunto may be added that which Clemens Alexandrinus hath Our Lord is profitable every way every way beneficial whether we respect him as Man or as God as God forgiving as Man instructing and learning how to avoid Sin For it is I even I that putteth away thine Iniquities for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins saith the Lord. Now albeit we willingly confess with Saint Cyprian The Sinnes which are committed against him he only hath power to forgive who hath taken upon him our Sinnes he which hath sorrowed and suffered for us he whom God hath given for our Offences Yet neither did Saint Cyprian intend to deny the power of the Minister otherwise then if he presume beyond his Commission to remit Sinne where God's own will is it should be retained For against such Ablutions he speaketh which being granted to whom they ought to have been denyed are of no validity and if rightly it be considered how higher causes in operation use to concur with inferiour means his Grace
with our Ministerie God really performing the same which Man is authorized to act as in his Name there shall need for decision of this point no great labour To Remission of Sins there are two things necessary Grace as the only cause which taketh away Iniquity and Repentance as a Duty or Condition required in us To make Repentance such as it should be what doth God demand but inward sincerity joyned with fit and convenient Offices for that purpose the one referred wholly to our own Consciences the other best discerned by them whom God hath appointed Judges in this Court. So that having first the promises of God for pardon generally unto all Offenders penitent and particularly for our own unfeigned meaning the unfallible testimony of a good Conscience the sentence of God's appointed Officer and Vicegerent to approve with unpartial Judgement the quality of that we have done and as from his Tribunal in that respect to assoil us of any Crime I see no cause but that by the Rules of our Faith and Religion we may rest our selves very well assured touching God's most merciful Pardon and Grace who especially for the strengthening of weak timerous and fearful mindes hath so farr indued his Church with Power to absolve Sinners It pleaseth God that men sometimes should by missing this help perceive how much they stand bound to him for so precious a Benefit enjoyed And surely so long as the World lived in any awe or fear of falling away from God so dear were his Ministers to the People chiefly in this respect that being through tyranny and persecution deprived of Pastors the doleful rehearsal of their lost felicities hath not any one thing more eminent than that Sinners distrest should not now know how or where to unlade their Burthens Strange it were unto me that the Fathers who so much every where extol the Grace of Jesus Christ in leaving unto his Church this Heavenly and Divine power should as men whose simplicity had universally been abused agree all to admire the magnifie and needless Office The Sentence therefore of Ministerial Absolution hath two effects touching sin it only declareth us freed from the guiltiness thereof and restored into God's favour but concerning right in Sacred and Divine Mysteries whereof through Sin we were made unworthy as the power of the Church did before effectually binde and retain us from access unto them so upon our apparent repentance it truly restoreth our Liberty looseth and Chains wherewith we were tyed remitteth all whatsoever is past and accepteth us no less returned than if we never had gone astray For in as much as the Power which our Saviour gave to his Church is of two kindes the one to be exercised over voluntary Penitents only the other over such as are to be brought to Amendment by Ecclesiastical Censures the words wherein he hath given this Authority must be so understood as the Subject or Matter whereupon it worketh will permit It doth not permit that in the former kinde that is to say in the use of Power over voluntarie Converts to binde or loose remit or retain should signifie any other than only to pronounce of Sinners according to that which may be gathered by outward signes because really to effect the removal or continuance of Sinne in the Soul of any Offender is no Priestly act but a Work which farr exceedeth their Ability Contrariwise in the latter kinde of Spiritual Jurisdiction which by Censures constraineth men to amend their Lives It is is true that the Minister of God doth then more declare and signifie what God hath wrought And this Power true it is that the Church hath invested in it Howbeit as other truths so this hath by errour been oppugned and depraved through abuse The first of Name that openly in Writing withstood the Churches Authority and Power to remit Sinne was Tertullian after he had combined himself with Montanists drawn to the liking of their Heresie through the very sowreness of his own nature which neither his incredible skill and knowledge otherwise nor the Doctrine of the Gospel it self could but so much alter as to make him savour any thing which carried with it the taste of lenity A Spunge steeped in Worm-wood and Gall a Man through too much severity merciless and neither able to endure nor to be endured of any His Book entituled concerning Chastity and written professedly against the Discipline of the Church hath many fretful and angry Sentences declaring a minde very much offended with such as would not perswade themselves that of Sins some be pardonable by the Keyes of the Church some uncapable of Forgiveness That middle and moderate Offences having received chastisement may by Spiritual Authority afterwards be remitted but greater Transgressions must as touching Indulgence be left to the only pleasure of Almighty God in the World to come That as Idolatry and Bloodshed so likewise Fornication and sinful Lust are of this nature that they which so farr have fallen from God ought to continue for ever after barred from access unto his Sanctuary condemned to perpetual profusion of Tears deprived of all expectation and hope to receive any thing at the Churches hands but publication of their shame For saith he who will fear to waste out that which he hopeth he may recover Who will be careful for ever to hold that which be knoweth cannot for ever be withheld from him He which slackneth the Bridle to sinne doth thereby give it even the spurr also Take away fear and that which presently succeedeth in stead thereof is Licencious desire Greater Offences therefore are punishable but not pardonable by the Church If any Prophet or Apostle be found to have remitted such Transgressions they did it not by the ordinary course of Discipline but by extraordinary power For they also raised the Dead which none but God is able to do they restored the Impotent and Lame men a work peculiar to Jesus Christ Yea that which Christ would not do because executions of such severity beseemed not him who came to save and redeem the World by his sufferings they by their power strook Elymas and Ananias the one blinde and the other dead Approve first your selves to be as they were Apostles or Prophets and then take upon you to pardon all men But if the Authority you have be only Ministerial and no way Soveraign over-reach not the limits which God hath set you know that to pardon capital Sin is beyond your Commission Howbeit as oftentimes the vices of wicked men do cause other their commendable qualities to be abhorred so the honour of great mens vertues is easily a Cloak of their Errours In which respect Tertullian hath past with much less obloquy and reprehension than Novatian who broaching afterwards the same opinion had not otherwise wherewith to countervail the Offence he gave and to procure it the like toleration Novatian at the first a Stoical Phylosopher which kinde of men hath alwayes accounted